


New Day

by Calliopes_Quill, flyingfoxtopus



Series: Sunrise Sunset [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 1940s!Bucky, Angst, Bucky doesn't fall, Canon Divergence, Captain America: The First Avenger, F/M, Fanart, Fix-It, Fluff, Happy Ending, WW2, cuteness, do not judge us, everyone gets to be happy, shameless flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:14:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24902164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calliopes_Quill/pseuds/Calliopes_Quill, https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingfoxtopus/pseuds/flyingfoxtopus
Summary: Bucky Barnes officially hates the Alps... and trains. Over the past three years, Bucky has been shot at enough that it is getting mundane, nearly been blown up more times than he would care to count, almost stabbed been while searching the Paris catacombs, and nearly drowned when the bridge they were trying to cross collapsed, but this is definitely the closest he has ever come to death. If Steve hadn't managed to catch his hand when the railing broke... Well thinking about it isn't helping anyone, so Bucky's not going to.The important thing is Stevedidcatch him. Now all they have to do is capture Zola, and Bucky can get back to his girl in one piece.Also known as what should have happened.An alternate, non-cannon compliant ending to Sunrise Sunset. Because everyone involved deserves to be happy.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s), OC/OC - freeform - Relationship, Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Series: Sunrise Sunset [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1801909
Comments: 36
Kudos: 32





	1. January 25, 1945

** January 25, 1945 **

Bucky stretched as far as he could. Fingertips almost brushing Steve’s glove.

Steve lunged. His hand closed around Bucky’s wrist just as the bar he was holding broke away.

With a grunt, he swung Bucky back inside.

Bucky stumbled into the rack in the middle of the car. Bouncing off it hard and sliding to the ground. He could feel the train rocking under him. Gentle rocking. He could handle gentle rocking. 

Steve landed next to him heavily. Falling to his knees and rolling into a sitting position next to Bucky.

Bucky lay back on the floor. His hands shaking uncontrollably. “I still don’t regret taking you on the Cyclone.”

“Jerk.”

Neither of them moved for a long while. Taking deep breaths and trying to get their heart rates back to safe levels. Steve had never been so scared in his life. His life was one thing. He’d never expected to live past thirty anyway. But Bucky—he’d never really believed that Bucky could die. Not after he had rescued him the first time. 

He’d been so sure that they were both going to make it through this. That as long as they were together, they could face down the world. They’d always told each other that they would be there for each other until the end of the line. For the first time Steve knew what that meant. Losing Bucky, after everything they had been through… It would break him. He knew it would. 

“Alright.” Bucky groaned and rolled onto his stomach. He felt like he weighed a thousand pounds as he pushed himself to his feet. Two slightly stumbling steps took him to the body of the Hydra stormtrooper he had taken down what felt like seven years ago. At least that was how much it had taken off his life. He needed to get moving again or he would shut down. That meant he needed a weapon. He dragged the energy rifle out from under its former owner and checked the sights, they looked straight. “Let’s finish this thing.”

★

They took the guards in the next car by surprise. Bucky started by shooting out the camera over the door with a quick blast from his pilfered Hydra rifle. He didn’t like the recoil on it, but his guns were out of bullets, and as Steve’s pistol was at the bottom of the gorge outside, he had no intention of going looking for it. He had come way too close to joining it as it was. 

Steve knocked out a ceiling-mounted cannon with his shield, before launching himself the length of the car after the disk. 

Even with all that distraction, and the fact they were standing out in the open, it took Bucky four shots to drop both guards. His hands were still shaking. 

★

They formed up on either side of the door. Steve on the right, shield at the ready. Bucky across from him, rifle butt against his shoulder, barrel pointed at the floor ready to swing up at the slightest threat. 

This was it. The last door on the train. The doctor was either on the other side or they had both almost died for nothing. Well not nothing, there was still enough Hydra tech on this train to make Stark flutter at them like a schoolgirl with a crush, but not what they were here for. Steve raised an eyebrow, a silent ‘ready?’

Bucky took a deep breath. They could do this. Capture the little scientist. find the information they needed to get to Schmidt and stop Zola from hurting anyone else the way he had hurt Bucky. He nodded sharply.

★

The door to the engine offered Steve about as much resistance as tissue paper. He tore through it effortlessly as Gabe dropped through the skylight above, rifle at the ready, and the train passed into a darkened tunnel. 

The engineer immediately turned around and raised one hand in the air, using the other to maintain the path of the train. He, at least, could be reasonably sure that he would survive this encounter. The console looked like something out of an alien spaceship. He doubted that these men could manage without him. That said, he was no fool. He would cooperate for now.

Zola was of a similar mind. He was not a brave man, but he was an intelligent one. He knew his value. And being faced with the sight of a very angry man with a shield, another angry man with a rifle, and a very familiar man with one of the guns he had designed, all aiming directly at his face, reminded him just how badly he wanted to survive this journey. He immediately raised his hands in surrender. 

With Steve and Bucky keeping their weapons trained on Zola, Gabe turned his attention to the engineer. 

“Continue to these coordinates,” he told the man in German, passing him a slip of paper with the rendezvous location written upon it.

The engineer nodded frantically, adjusting the controls. Gabe watched him like a hawk, making sure his hands did not stray anywhere near the communications setup or the self-destruct controls. They had not come so close to ending this war only to lose that hope now.


	2. January 27, 1945

** January 27, 1945 **

There wasn't a lot of news that could have made Bucky truly happy after they turned Zola over for interrogation. Everything about the little man left a bad taste in his mouth. There was something off about him. It was like he didn’t realize that he was the one who had been captured, not the other way around. The entire way back Bucky had the unnerving feeling that he was being studied, like a bug in a jar.

The note Peggy had slipped into his pocket with a wink had done it. 

Moose Tracks had been moved back to England for a couple of months, set up in a field just outside London. He would have liked to think it was because the war was winding down and there was no reason his girl needed to be out on the front and in danger. Unfortunately he suspected it was largely because the Allies were reconsolidated in preparation for another big push.

 _Why_ wasn't really as important in the short term. Dawn was safe and close right now. Once he found that out, wild horses couldn't have kept him from heading straight there once he was dismissed for the night.

The sun had been setting when he left command and it took him the better part of an hour to pick his way across the city thanks to checkpoints and the roads closed thanks to bombing craters. It was almost shift-change by the time Bucky showed the Canadian sentries his ID. There was a light on in the little side tent the nurses used to store supplies. Bucky crept up as quietly as he could. Dawn would still think he was out. He could surprise her.

At least if she was on shift. If she wasn’t he would ask whoever was where he could find her. He peeked through the flap. She was working. Lamp light glinted on the narrow strip of hair in front of her wimple. She hummed softly to herself, carefully unpacking and arranging supplies on the shelves.

Bucky leaned against the support pole to watch her. How could watching a girl stack bandages make him feel so warm inside? All she was doing was restocking at the end of her shift, but it still felt like coming home.

Rosie pushed through the door from the main ward. Her mouth formed a little “o” of surprise when she spotted him.

Bucky set a finger against his lips to stop her saying anything. Dawn hadn’t noticed him yet. He could still surprise her.

Rosie smiled mischievously and ducked back out of the tent. Leaving them alone.

Dawn sighed and stretched out her neck. It had been a long day, she was glad it was over. All she wanted to do was fall into her cot and sleep for a week. Or at least a solid ten hours. 

Thank god her shift was over. She finished her restocking and turned to leave. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the figure in the door. 

“Hello, Sunshine.” Bucky smiled and held out his arms. “Did you miss me?”

Dawn threw herself into his arms. ‘Missed him’ didn't even begin to cover it. “You’re back!”

He lifted her off her feet and spun her around. “You ever doubted it? I'll always come back to you, doll.”

Dawn balanced on her toes to be able to kiss him. He did come back. No matter what had happened, he had always come back.

“Sergeant Barnes!” The matron's voice made them spring apart. “I realise that your celebrity grants you some leniency when it comes to following standard military procedure, but I will ask that you don’t maul my girls while they are in uniform.”

Bucky smiled. So he was allowed to maul her as long as she wasn’t in uniform. That was good to know. “Yes ma'am. I will certainly try.”

The matron patted Dawn’s burning cheek affectionately. “Go on, dear. Enjoy your evening. Do try to remember the bounds of propriety. Even if he is very charming.”

“Yes ma'am.” Dawn knew her blush was only getting worse. She kept her eyes firmly fixed on the floor. Bucky was very charming. Charming enough that she didn't want to remember property around him. At least not all the time.

★

Thankfully propriety didn’t preclude holding tight to Bucky as he escorted her back to her tent, one hand firmly in his, the other wrapped around his arm to keep him close. She pressed her face against his shoulder as they walked. The feel of the solid muscle against her cheek reassured her that he wasn’t a hallucination. He was really here. Really safe and with her. At least for now. “How long are you back for?”

“Hard to say.” Bucky shrugged, rubbing his thumb along the back of her soft hand. “You know how it is, doll. I could be back for weeks while they try to figure out what to do with what we brought back, or I could be out again first thing.” 

Dawn’s chest tightened. She did know. That didn’t mean she liked it. She wanted this war to be over. Even if it meant her returning to Canada, while Bucky went back to his life in New York. She had said she would visit, whatever that entailed. Even if she couldn’t do that, if she never saw him again, at least he would be safe.

Bucky hated to see her retreat inwards like that. He wanted to see her laughing. To enjoy the time they did have together. “Play hooky with me tonight. I'll take you out on the town. Buy you fish and chips. We’ll go dancing.”

Dawn ran her hands up his chest. It sounded wonderful. “I have to work in the morning.” 

“So do I. Strategy meetings all day.” All day, assuming Zola didn’t give up anything time sensitive tonight. That went on the list of things he didn’t want to think about. Bucky turned Dawn into him, pressing her to his chest. The small of her back felt so right under his hand. He raised his other hand to tuck a stubborn curl back under her wimple. “Come on, Sunshine. I promise I'll get you home before you turn into a pumpkin. What will it take to convince you?”

She liked the idea of being convinced almost as much as she liked the idea of going dancing with him. It would almost certainly involve a liberal amount of kissing and the kind of sweet talking he was so excellent at. She turned her face up so he could at least try.

"There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” The crisp British voice was one of the last things Bucky wanted to hear right now. He would take air raid sirens over anyone from the Howling Commandos right now.

“Little busy here, Monty.” Bucky tightened his hold on Dawn. He could think of half a dozen reasons why Falsworth could be here. He was in charge of the team’s requisitions for one thing. That had to be it. Bucky had lost three specialised weapons on the last mission. If the quartermaster couldn’t replace those exact models, he would need to sign off on substitution.

“Apologies, Sister.” Falsworth bent in a gallant half bow for Dawn, before turning urgently to Bucky. “Cap sent me to retrieve you. Zola talked and the surveillance flights are back. Rally in war room H, two hours."

Bucky sighed and rested his forehead against Dawn’s. There went all his plans to spend the night alternating between swaying with his girl held tight against him, and making sure her feet didn’t touch the ground for more than a second. If Steve was sending Monty to find him things were moving fast. "Sorry, Sunshine. I've got to go to work."

Dawn curled her hands around the back of his head holding him against her for a moment longer. She wanted to say something. Something he could take with him that would help bring him home. ‘Stay safe’ felt like a jinx, ‘come home’ was asking for trouble, all the deep and poignant quotes she could think of sounded pretentious even in her head. There was really only one thing she could say. “I love you.”

** January 28, 1945 **

Colonel Philips paced the length of the long map board that dominated one end of the underground briefing room. A very different map from the one that had graced the board the last time the Howling Commandos had sat around this table. The map of Europe with the trail of destruction the Commandos had hewn across the continent marked on it were gone. In its place was a much more discouraging map. The entire globe spread out and covered in the trajectories of what looked like hundreds of long-range bombers. They were just waiting on Stark to start the briefing. 

Bucky leaned back in his seat next to Steve. He was doing his best not to fidget, but he was getting anxious. At some point someone was going to have to physically drag Stark in here. They were operating on a pretty tight timeline if they wanted to keep that map theoretical.

Finally, Stark bustled into the room. Bucky tried not to bristle at the fact he looked like he had come straight from the barber. They had all taken the opportunity to shower and put on clean clothes. Hadn’t he wasted a couple of hours last night on his girl? Still Stark didn’t sit down. Instead he put his head together with one of the men standing around the perimeter of the room whispering back and forth, pointing at a piece of paper urgently.

Eventually Philips gave up waiting and launched into his opening speech. Stark could catch up when he finished what he was doing. “Johann Schmidt belongs in a bug house. He thinks he’s a god and he’s willing to blow up half the world to prove it. Starting with the USA.”

“Schmidt’s working with powers beyond our capabilities. If he makes it across the Atlantic, he will wipe out the entire eastern seaboard in an hour.” Stark said, finally slipping into the vacant seat at the table.

Peggy and Bucky both looked to Steve pouring intently over the new figures Stark had compiled. Ignoring everyone else. They had both read the old reports through before the meeting started. There wasn’t a lot of hope in them. Those figures and Steve’s mind were where anything paradigm shifting was going to come from.

The rest of the Commandos looked back and forth between the colonel, the map, and their captain. Gabe was the one who broke the silence. “How much time we got?”

Philips looked up from the aerial surveillance photos he had been studying all morning. “According to my new best friend? Under twenty-four hours.”

“Where is he now?” Jacques asked, surprisingly calm in the face of this new disaster.

The colonel flipped around the photos so they could all see what he was looking at. “Schmidt’s last base is here. In the Alps. 500 feet below the surface.”

He tossed the photos into the middle of the table where they landed with a discouraging slap. 

Mortia picked up the top couple to inspect himself, Monty leaning in over his shoulder for a better view. Both of them looked dejected at the sight. “So, what are we supposed to do? It’s not like we can just knock on the front door.

Bucky didn’t take his eyes off Steve. He knew that look. His favourite idiot had a plan forming.

“Why not?” Steve said evenly. That seed of a plan crystallising into the glint of a very bad idea in his eyes.

Seven of the nine people at the table looked towards him in shock. Bucky was pleased to see that Peggy’s expression wasn’t shock, it was simple expectant pride. She had known he would come up with a plan. Something no one else would dare to think of. And she was equally confident that whatever the plan was it would work. That warmed Bucky’s heart. He would be damned if his friend hadn’t found the one girl in the world that was perfect for him.

Steve met the stunned expressions with easy confidence. “That’s exactly what we’re gonna do.”

“I hate your plans. You know that, right?” Bucky groaned, propping his feet up on the table. He knocked the stack of reports he was supposed to be studying over in the process. Not that they mattered. Steve had already read through all of them and Bucky thought it was unlikely that he would come up with anything better than Steve had inside their limited planning time. Steve was the strategy guy. He was more about the execution. “That all of your plans are awful and going to kill us all?”

Steve snorted. Given how close they had come on the last mission he couldn’t even argue with that. Still if the options were getting them killed or letting thousands of civilians die without putting up a fight, he knew which option he would choose every time, and he didn’t think Bucky’s answer was all that different. “You haven’t even heard about the zip line yet.”

“Of course, there’s another damn zip line.” Bucky rubbed his eyes. “What else? You storm the main fortifications on your own, cause a little bit of havoc and deliberately get yourself captured?”

Steve grinned. “Basically.”

★

“Alright ladies.” Peggy barked, striding down the centre aisle of the nurses tent, pulling off the blankets covering the girls. She knew her drill sergeant voice was enough to rouse the dead. Four women running on hair triggers weren’t even a challenge. “Time to do our duty for King and country.”

Ginny looked ready to commit murder for the intrusion, hair sticking up at odd angles, eyes still groggy as she sat up. 

Minnie almost fell out of her cot trying to cling onto her blanket.

“ _Peggy_ , my shift ended an hour ago. I _just_ lay down. Why on earth are you waking us up?” Rosie groaned, dragging her pillow over her face.

Dawn was curious about that too. She’d only drifted off around midnight. Worrying about her boy always did a number on her sleep the first night she knew he was away. Then Sally had woken her up banging around when she got up to relive Rosie.

“I thought that obvious.” Peggy smirked and set a determined hand on her hip. Obvious to her at least. She would bet good money that none of the boys had figured out that they would need nurses to go along with the men they were collecting from the rest of the camp. They would be completely lost without her. “We’re going to storm the last Hydra facility and save the bloody damn world.”

If anything could have gotten them out of bed, it was that. After a moment’s stunned silence, the three nurses burst upright, scrambling to get their gear out of their footlockers. Minnie started packing things the others wouldn’t need immediately into three rucksacks. Dawn dug desperately for her overalls, while Ginny braided back her hair, and Rosie found them all thick socks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know we love the comments 💙💙💙


	3. January 28, 1945

** January 28, 1945 **

The Alps were definitely overrated. Bucky couldn’t wait to see the back of them. They were cold. They were windy. And if he saw one more _Goddamn cliff_ he was going to scream. He drummed his fingers on the butt of his rifle and stared out across the empty space in front of him. He could just make out a window set into the cliff on the far side. They had a clean shot at the windows from their ledge. He had sighted the little cannon things himself.

Behind him Morita and Falsworth babysat a radio anxiously while Dugan smoked and polished his brand new high powered shotgun. Happy double checked their ends of the cables to make sure at least one end was firmly attached. Jacques doted over a large shaped charge, specifically designed to open the huge reinforced front door. 

The rest of their team were hiding down in the woods ready to lead the main assault force in as soon as they got that door open. 

It was a good plan. Solid. Well thought out. Bucky still hated that it called for Steve to go in alone. They were putting a lot of faith in a madman.

“Has that punk set off his beacon yet?” Bucky spat, eyeing the waiting pneumatic guns with their worryingly small grappling darts suspiciously. Stark’s inventions hadn’t failed them yet. But it wouldn’t take much for these to be a disaster. Best case scenario he ended up dangling at the end of 300 feet of wire like an idiot. Worst case scenario… He was really starting to hate heights. 

And the cold. He cupped his hands and breathed into them. He wanted the gloves Dawn had made for him. Missed the feel of the little embroidered symbols rubbing against the inside of his arms. They were back in his foot locker. He couldn’t do the damn zip-lines in them and he wouldn’t risk them being left behind on the side of this God forsaken mountain.

“Not yet.” Flasworth called over the sound of the wind. “But someone tripped the perimeter alarm fairly spectacularly.”

Bucky shook his head. That sounded like Steve. He and Stark had been whispering together as they loaded gear onto the planes. He didn’t even want to think about what kind of gadgets Steve had ended up with.

★

Steve blasted through the forest, the sound of his motorcycle a muted roaring in his ears. Trees whipped by as he wove through the woods. He kept his eyes focused ahead as the bike tripped an alarm cable. A red light flickered on, and a moment later he heard the distinct sound of a squad of motorcycle-mounted Hydra troopers pulling in behind them.

Steve tried not to smile. _Right on time_. He revved the bike, hunching down and picking up speed. _Catch me if you can_. It was time to test out some of the new features that Stark built into his bike. 

As he led them around a steep curve, he flicked the cover on a red switch, and when he had them in line again, pressed down. A thick steel cable fired out from the back, the ends punching into a pair of trees on either side of the road and clothes-lining two of the troopers tailing him. The flick of another switch had flames erupting from the tailpipe of Steve’s bike, incapacitating two more. A glance in his side mirror told him a third trooper had crashed right into the flaming wreckage of the other two, flinging him over the handlebars.

A flicker of movement in his periphery had him glancing ahead as the two remaining troopers pulled ahead of him on the road, aiming to cut him off. Steve revved the bike again, pulling in closer to pass them. Hydra built good bikes, he would give them that. But that vertical exhaust pipe was a glaring design flaw that his bike did not have. One that he took immediate advantage of by dropping a pair of grenades down as soon as he was in range. 

And then it was Steve, riding alone towards a heavily guarded concrete gateway with a massive tank poised and ready. Setting his mouth grimly, Steve pulled his shield from his back and wedged it onto the front of his bike as the whining sound of the charging cannon filled the air. He swerved to avoid the blast, and as he veered to the far side of the road, he fired two more missiles from the front of his bike, detonating the moment they made contact with the tank, effectively crippling it. 

Steve rode up the sloped front of the barricade, soaring over top and for a moment it feels like he’s flying. He landed steadily right in the middle of the encampment. 

As the Hydra soldiers scrambled into action, Steve activated the final weapon on his bike, leaping off of it to tackle one of the troopers off of the nearest tank. The bike continued on without him until it crashed into the front door and exploded.

Steve had no time to celebrate. He was vastly outnumbered. He knew he would be. He usually was. He had to trust in the arrogance of Schmidt, his desire for a grand performance, to see him through to the next stage of the plan. Given what they knew of the man, the Red Skull possessed that trait in spades. 

Schmidt had a point to make. And there was no fun in relishing a victory unless your enemy was around to see himself fail. Bullies were all the same.

So Steve tore through the troopers one by one, tossing his shield to ricochet between them, catching the flying disk just in time to deflect a blast from one of the beam rifles. He felt bad sometimes, fighting fist-to-fist with these men. It seemed unfair to fight someone so much physically weaker than he was. In each one he could see himself, a skinny boy in a back alleyway, lip bloodied, fists raised against an opponent he could never hope to beat. But then, he had never been a Nazi bent on world-domination. So that was where the comparison definitely ended, and he put his qualms aside as he punched another trooper into the ground. 

He ducked under a roaring jet of flames just in time, and when he stood he was penned by a pair of Hydra troopers, caging him in with twin flame-throwers. They were close, almost too close. Close enough that he could smell the burning petrol as clearly as he could feel the searing heat of the fire. 

When they were certain they had him trapped, the fire sputtered out, and Steve found himself completely surrounded by Riflemen.

Ducking his head, he raised his hands in surrender. 

★

A red light and a buzzer blared from the radio.

Morita and Falsworth froze, both with their eyes locked on the blinking light.

“That’s the signal!” Dugan shouted, leaping to his feet. His cigar hissed as it hit the snow. 

Happy grinned and retrieved the miniature Gatling gun he'd left propped against the cliff wall.

Jacques scrambled to finish preparations on his bomb.

Bucky launched the zip lines. Anchoring darts whizzing into the cold air. A sharp metallic sound echoed back to them across the valley, and the lines snapped tight. Four inch thick cables stretched from the rock wall behind them to the window. Bucky decided he definitely didn’t like heights.

“You know I was rather jealous of you chaps getting to do this last time.” Falsworth said, hefting his slide.

“And now?” Happy asked, peering over the edge. His slide was already firmly attached.

A mistake in Bucky’s opinion. Looking down only reminded you how far up you were. He let out a long breath and flexed his knees. He really didn’t like how much the cables were swaying. 

Monty grinned and clipped onto this cable. “Scared absolutely shitless.”

Dugan brayed a laugh and claimed the last cable.

Jacques and Morita would count to 100 after they broke through then follow them with the charge. It was big enough that it would take two people to get it across and no one wanted to risk it getting caught in the initial cross fire.

Standing here wasn’t getting this over with any faster. Bucky hooked a handle over his own cable. “See you on the other side.”

Bucky stepped off the edge and the world fell away. 

Wind tore at him. The sideways draft pushing at him almost as strong as the air hitting his face as he fell. He heard Dugan whooping behind him. How on earth had Steve found this many men as crazy as he was?

He pushed the thought aside. Focusing on keeping his boots pointed straight at the shining glass of the window.

★

They bound Steve’s hands before they hauled him through the Hydra facility towards Schmidt’s office. The cuffs they used didn't actually contain him any more than some loose twine would have. But they didn't need to know that. 

Yet.

Steve kept a careful eye on every twist and turn. He’d need them on his way out. At last they pulled him into a cavernous office, framed in heavy steel, a massive plate window offering a view of the snowy mountains beyond.

Schmidt stepped out of the shadows, as if he had been waiting for this moment. The satisfied smile on his face was all but obscene in that gruesome red visage.

Taking this as his cue, Steve began to struggle as the troopers forced him to his knees. These men didn’t know how strong he really was, so he put just enough into the movement to make them fight to keep him down. Maybe all that acting in the stage show had been good for something after all.

Schmidt pays his struggles no mind. “Arrogance may not be a uniquely American trait,” he mused by way of greeting. “But I will say you do it better than anyone else.” He leaned in, white teeth gleaming against the bloody red of his face. “But there are limits to what even you can do. Or did Erskine tell you otherwise?”

“He told me you were insane. That seemed like enough.” Steve replied simply. It seemed like the right button to push because he immediately saw the displeasure on Schmidt’s face.

“Erskine resented my genius and tried to deny me what was rightfully mine!” He spat furiously. “But he gave you everything. And I wonder… what made you so special?”

That was something that Steve had never had an answer for. Erskine told him he was chosen because he was a good man. But he wasn’t that good, not really. He shook his head, giving a small smile in return. “Nothing. I’m just a kid from Brooklyn.”

The fist to the face that came afterwards was not unexpected, but _God damn_ did it hurt. Being punched hadn’t hurt that much since Basic. The guards gripped Steve’s arms steadily, keeping upright as Schmidt laid into him with black-gloved fists.

At last Schmidt stepped back.

Steve looked up at him, breathing heavy, beaten and exhausted. And through his split lip and bloody mouth, smiled again. “I can do this all day.”

Schmidt’s fists clenched in anger, then relaxed. “I am quite sure you can. But I am on a schedule.” He pulled the luger out of its holster at his side, pointing it right between Steve’s eyes. 

Steve grinned back. “So am I.”

Dimly he heard the sound of four muffled impacts. He knew Schmidt could hear them too, as he turned briefly to the window, then back to Steve, his hand firm on his pistol, but as his finger tightened on the trigger, Steve jerked to the side, yanking one of the guards restraining him directly into the path of the blast.

The man disintegrated on contact with the blast. He didn’t even have time to scream.

Then Bucky, Falsworth, Dugan, and Happy crashed through the plate glass window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting real again! Speculation on what's going to happen? Is Steve as much of a plane related idiot when he has Bucky around to rein him in? Should they have let Peggy use one of the zip lines?


	4. January 28, 1945-Continued

Dawn couldn’t tear her eyes away from the radio and its operator. They were getting almost no information back from the Commandos. From their perch in the back of the jeep she and Rosie had a clear view of the transcription pad. It was distressingly empty. Morita had let them know that the team was ready. The men with Steve had sent a transmission when he started his initial run. Then nothing. 

There was supposed to be an alarm or something when Steve was in position.

It still hadn’t come. It was late. It had to be late. Dawn was pretty sure there was only supposed to be a fifteen minute gap between Steve taking off and the signal, and it had definitely been two or three hours. Her watch said twelve minutes. It was clearly broken.

It had taken a lot of convincing to get the women this close to the front. Philips had wanted to leave the nurses back at the forward base. Rosie and Ginny had used the full force of their personalities to convince him that they would need medical closer than that. Peggy would have helped, but she'd already used all her chips to get herself put in charge of one of the assault squads.

Being at the front was a mixed blessing. They were here for when something happened. But they couldn't do anything to help right now. All they could do was wait. Wait and worry.

Dawn knew she was close to vibrating with nerves. Bucky was on the side of a mountain. No one would tell her how he was supposed to get inside from there, so it was probably stupidly dangerous. His best friend was throwing himself headlong at Hydra's strongest defences, which was definitely stupidly dangerous. And all she could do was sit still and not give anyone a reason to send her away.

It felt like time had completely stopped in the little clearing they were using as a rally point. Rosie rubbed Dawn’s back reassuringly, green eyes fierce as she watched the men mill around them. Ginny paced next to the jeep. Hands clasped behind her back. Peggy carefully and methodically checked her gun for the fifth time.

Finally the red light illuminated with a shrill buzz.

Around the clearing the men launched into action. Collecting weapons, putting out cigarettes, straightening helmets. The low hum that had prevailed during the wait, transforming into a dull roar. 

Dawn wasn’t sure if she felt better or worse now that things were moving.

“Carter! Get your squad down that hill and get ready for entry!” Colonel Philips bellowed. 

Peggy gave Dawn and Rosie a quick hug. “Shan't be long now.”

A dozen men fell in behind her as she started down the hill. She held her chin high. Walking with enough confidence that Dawn was sure she could scare Hydra into fleeing before she fired a shot.

★

Happy landed first. Knocking everything off the big desk in the process. Bucky set down on his left half a second later. Dugan and Falsworth coming through the outside windows, a heartbeat after that.

Schmit reacted almost before they were through the glass. Turning his back on his men and bolting from the room. Abandoning his followers to their fate without so much as a word.

The invaders moved before anyone else in the room had a chance to think.

Happy made sure all attention was on them, with a spray of machine gun fire that took down the entire line of guards closest to their entry point.

Dugan whooped again and dove into the fray with his shotgun. Falsworth advanced more cautiously on the other side of the desk. Letting off controlled bursts of automatic fire.

Bullets ricochet off the machinery in the room. Sporadic blasts of blue light illuminated the chaos. Dissipating harmlessly when the wild shots missed their targets.

Bucky dropped to one knee and started picking his shots. First the guy holding Steve’s shield. Then the two by the door. His hands weren’t shaking this time. They were so close to the end of this.

Four more of the guards went down. They were in complete disarray without their leader.

Morita and Jacques swung through the window, demolition charge suspended between them.

Steve looked from his team to the door. Schmit was getting away. They had this under control. The decision was obvious. He traded one last quick look with Bucky, and took two steps back towards the door. 

That was enough of a sign for Bucky. They were moving. He stopped looking for targets, they were getting thin on the ground anyway, and vaulted off the desk.

“Rogers!” Falsworth snagged Steve’s shield off a fallen guard and tossed it to him. “You might need this.”

Steve snagged it out of the air and jogged into the hall.

“You got the door?” Bucky had to bellow to be heard of the battle, but Dugan heard him and nodded once in conformation. “I got the Captain.”

He wasn’t sure he even needed to say the second part out loud. The team all knew that he was going to be stuck like glue to Steve for this mission. The idiot needed someone to cover him. Bucky sprinted after Steve catching him before he could make it around more than one corner. They needed to stay together. The underground portion of the complex was a maze. Narrow passages linking the broad curving main corridors. Subtle inclines masking the fact you were changing levels. It would be easy to be separated and then get hopelessly lost.

They could hear the sound of Hydra troops moving behind and around them. Both men kept their heads down and kept running. They weren’t here for the main Hydra force or even the elite troop. As far as Steve and Bucky were concerned there were only two targets that mattered in this entire fortress. 

Schmit and the Valkyrie. 

For one they just had to follow the signs to the air-plane hanger. 

The other looked like he was heading that direction too.

A distant explosion echoed down the hall from the direction of the main doors. That would be their team. With any luck the main force of mixed American’s and Canadians would be breaking through any second.

Steve was the one who spotted Schmit, doubling back from the exit. 

He saw his pursuers the same time they saw him. Firing an energy blast that Steve caught on his shield and taking off down a branching hallway.

Schmit was fast. Faster than Steve and Bucky. He pulled away as the corridor started a gradual arc left towards a blast door

Steve whipped his shield after the disappearing back. He missed hitting the Red Skull, but managed to lodge his shield between the closing doors. At least preventing Schmit from cutting off their pursuit.

A trooper with a pair of huge flame throwers stepped out of another side tunnel. 

Bucky grabbed Steve and pulled him into the limited shelter of an elevator door, just as a sheet of fire lanced through the spot where he had been standing.

“Flamethrowers? Who the hell gave them flamethrowers?” Bucky tried to press deeper into the alcove. There wasn’t really enough space for both of them. How long could the guy keep up the flames anyway? If they could get a break they could take him out and get moving.

“No idea, but they really like them.” Steve shifted to shield Bucky a little more. They needed a plan. One that would get them out of this doorway and let them catch up with Schmidt, preferably one that didn’t leave either of them seriously burned. It would be easy if his shield wasn’t wedged in a door fifty feet away.

★

The last of the Canadians passed through the tree line. Leaving only the three nurses in the moderate shelter of the forest. Blasts of blue light and bullets whizzed across the clearing. Explosions sent showers of dirt into the air. 

Dawn pressed her palm into the rough bark of a tree. It was carnage. Men were falling before her eyes. And Bucky was somewhere on the other side of it. The sound of the battle slowly faded, replaced in her ears by a deafening ringing. Bucky in danger. Bucky hurt. Bucky--

She shoved away from the tree. She could just leave him. She had to get to him. Had to protect him. 

Ginny grabbed Dawn around the waist and wrestled her to the ground.

Dawn struggled and tried to fight her way free of her friend’s grip. “Bucky is in there!”

“So is all of Hydra.” Ginny argued, tightening her hold.

At this moment there was a part of her that didn’t care. He was there, their friends were there, and they might need help. She was sick of sitting on the sidelines when people she cared about were in danger, sick of waiting for word only to find out something had happened when it was far too late. 

Rosie slapped her across the cheek. Not hard, just enough of a shock to clear her head. Dawn was absolutely not allowed to get herself killed for a man, not even Bucky. “How is he going to feel if you get yourself shot? Those aren’t snowballs They’re throwing around out there.”

Dawn didn’t have an answer for that. The only thing she could think of was how she would feel if Bucky got shot and she wasn’t there to do anything.

“He’s doing his job. We need to do ours.” Ginny said sternly, not letting go and risking her friend running straight into the jaws of death. They were not equipped for the fight. Only for the aftermath.

They could almost see her deflate at the reminder. Her friends were right. She had a job to do. And out there she’d be nothing but a distraction. Dawn let out a heavy sigh, then nodded. “Okay. You’re right. You can let me up now. None of us will be of any use tangled in a pile on the ground.”

Ginny let her up cautiously. When she didn’t immediately launch herself back towards the fighting, Ginny pressed a medical bag into her hand. “Work helps. I promise.”

Rosie offered Dawn a hand to her feet. Together they made a more cautious foray into the field, grabbing the first injured man they came to and dragging him back to the shelter of the trees.

★

There was gunfire from the hall behind the trooper.

The flamethrower tanks exploded. The trooper collapsed into a smouldering pile. 

A single figure stepped out of the hallway, followed by a stream of mixed American and Canadian soldiers.

Steve gaped at their saviour, just a little.

Peggy _God Damn_ Cater. Arriving just in time to pull their fat out of the literal fire. She must have been right at the front of the assault force, seen Schmit retreating from the invasion and given pursuit. She really was braver than 90% of the men Steve knew, and looked better holding a shotgun to boot.

He took two jogging steps to end in front of her. _This_ was the woman he was going to marry. “You’re late.”

“Weren’t you about to…” Peggy was having a very hard time remembering what was going on aside from that smile.

“Kiss the pretty girl later. We’ve got to a plane to catch.” Bucky smacked Steve on the back of the head on his way down the hall. He ducked under the wedged shield and sprinted towards the hanger.

“Right” Steve grimaced. He wouldn’t say he had forgotten what they were doing. But Peggy in full battle cry was a very distracting thing. 

He freed his shield and took off after Bucky and Schmit.

★

They weren’t prepared for the hanger. The plan had assumed that most of the fighting would be away from the plane. Instead the forces were going at it all but hand to hand in the vast space. The Allies were pushing in breaking the stiff ranks of Hydra, still what looked like hundreds of black leather clad men firing energy weapons stood between Steve and where he needed to be.

And Schmit had made it to the damn plane.

Steve could see the engines spinning up on the far side of the fray. The wheels starting to move.

Bucky looked between Steve, the fight, and the plane. “Go. I’ll catch up.”

Steve took his word for it and took off at a dead run. 

He bashed his way through the handful of Hydra troopers that got in his way. Deflecting balls of energy off his shield as he ran. A crate loomed in his path. He could vault over it, he could go around, or…

Steve launched himself at the crate, using it as a step to get enough height to grab the chain dangling from the ceiling mounted transport crane. His hand closed on the chain, the crane moved, sending him swinging and sliding over the fighting and safely to the open pavement of the runway.

Ahead of him the plane slowly taxied towards the opening doors of the hangar. He could still make it. He had to make it.

How Bucky was going to catch up was a question he didn’t actually have an answer to yet. Fighting his way across this mess felt like a bad idea. A slow bad idea. 

No way in hell was he doing what Steve had done. Swinging in the air over a fire fight was a good way to get yourself shot.

“Barnes!” 

Bucky turned in the direction of Peggy’s voice. She was standing on the running board of a huge black and chrome car. _Yeah. That will work._

Bucky vaulted into the front seat as the Colonel fired up the engine. He poked the barrel of his gun over the windshield, taking pot shots at any Hydra too stupid to get out of their way fast enough. 

Steve jogged to a stop. He couldn't do it. He couldn't catch the plane. Schmidt was going to get away. They had come so close and stumbled right at the finish line.

The growl of an engine made him look left. A monster of a car slid to a stop inches from his hip, Bucky looking determined in the passenger seat, Peggy in the back serene as always. Colonel Philips glared at him from the driver’s seat. “Get in.”

Steve swung himself into the car, shoving his shield onto his back at the same time. The colonel took off before he was fully settled, forcing him to cling to the back of Bucky’s seat. He felt Peggy pull on his belt to hold him in just a little more securely.

Philips hit a button on the dash. Flames roared out of the sides of the engine. The car leapt forward. Faster than the plane. Fast enough that they could catch up. Steve’s determination redoubled. They still had a chance.

He tapped Bucky on the back of the head and nodded towards the plane.

Bucky set his jaw. He wasn’t looking forward to this part. He clambered over the door and onto the running board with as much dignity as he could manage. The narrow ledge was a hard place to balance with the car still speeding along.

“Keep it steady.” Steve ordered as he swung a leg out after his friend.

“Wait!” Peggy looked up at him, slightly frantic. She grabbed one of the straps across his chest and dragged him back down for a kiss.

It wasn’t a long kiss, but Steve was still completely breathless at the end. Peggy beamed at him. Panic replaced with a fierce pride. “Go get ‘em.”

“I’m not kissn’ ya.” The colonel growled when they separated and Steve glanced at him in surprise.

Steve shook his head to clear it. Peggy kissing him in public was a surprise, one he wanted to get used to. All he had to do was save the world and then he could kiss her as much as he wanted to. 

Bucky hung precariously off the side mirror to duck under the spinning propellers. Steve hunched over him, the blades ringing as they bounced off his shield.

Together, they edged towards the front of the engine. Getting as close to the wheels of the landing gear as possible.

Bucky leapt first. Hurling himself towards the tiers with more confidence than he actually felt. He scrambled a little, clutching desperately at the gears as he landed. He pulled himself into the tangle of the mechanism. 

Steve landed behind him. Bucky grabbed the strap on Steve’s shoulder and helped pull him onto the plane.

Slowly the landing gear retracted into the plane. Lifting them into the belly of the beast. Bucky swallowed. He couldn’t quite remember why they had been so anxious to get aboard. It was really kind of stupid considering.


	5. January 28, 1945-Continued 2

The boys extracted themselves cautiously as the doors closed beneath them. Vaulting the rail onto a narrow walkway and looking around the cavernous interior. Hybrid bomb-planes lined the outside of the space. Each one clearly labeled with the name of an American city. 

Steve saw Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Charlston, others that he couldn’t read from this angle and the one that nearly made his heart stop, New York. His home.

There was a noise from the upper level. A door opening. Steve and bucky exchanged panicked looks and dove for cover. Steve pulled himself back on top of the landing gear. Bucky ducked into the shadow of the tires, gun at the ready.

A line of Hydra pilots jogged into the space, all dressed in high altitude flight suits. A quick count gave them one for each plane.

From their hiding spots, Steve and Bucky made eye contact. Now or never.

Steve grabbed an overhead pipe and swung into the head of the last man in the line. Bucky fired at the man in the lead catching him in the shoulder.

That got their attention. The entire group turned to face them. There was a moment of stillness where no one was quite sure what to do.

Then the man closest to Steve pulled a knife out of his boot and launched himself at him. 

The other pilots scattered. Two of them joining in to gang up on Steve. Three others bolting for their planes.

Bucky picked off the one he had grazed earlier.

Steve disarmed the man with the knife easily. Twisting the blade out of his hand at the same time he struck him in the ribs. The man let go and went limp, Steve dumped him out of the way over the railing and kicked the next man hard in the chest.

The third man who had been going for Steve reevaluated and dropped down on top of Bucky instead.

Bucky, who had been lining up a shot on the pilot closest to his plane, found himself knocked off balance and sprawled across the curved metal of the floor.

Out of the corner of his eye Steve saw the man Bucky had been targeting reaching for the latch to open his cockpit. Steve flipped the knife in his hand, glad now of all the nights spent throwing knives as a way to pass the time with the Howling Commandos, and whipped in at the pilot’s back. 

It landed cleanly, lodging itself in that man’s spine up to the hilt and sending him sprawling over the nose of his plane.

Bucky tried to wrestle his way free of the man who had tackled him, but he was pinned awkwardly over a strut, rifle pressed lengthwise against his throat.

One of the other pilots managed to open the latch to his plane, automatically activating the launch doors beneath the plane to open too. Thin icy wind whipped around the cabin.

Steve spotted a control console at the corner where the walkways branched out beside the individual planes. He lunged at it. Making some quick guesses at what vaguely familiarly labeled buttons did. He hit what he thought was ‘activate’ and pulled a lever that was definitely ‘release’ or at least it made the plane drop away under the pilot the way he hoped it would. The man dangled hopelessly by one hand over the now empty space for a heartbeat before dropping away with a scream.

Bucky fought his way out from under his attacker, knocking the man out with the butt of his rifle. Freed, he dragged himself back onto the walkway.

The first man Steve had struck knocked down had gotten back up somehow. Hurling himself at Steve’s side in a desperate attempt to stop him. Steve picked him up bodily and tossed him through the void in the floor. He hated the way they screamed, but the white city names on the noses of the planes reminded him how many civilians he was protecting.

Two more pilots stepped into Bucky’s space. Bucky kicked for the knees of the first one, bringing his rifle around to smack the other hard across the ribs at the same time.

Bucky was having a hard time getting enough air into his lungs to keep fighting the way he knew he could. A punch to the kidneys caught him off guard. He stumbled forward. Straight into another punch from the other man, that knocked what little breath he had been able to catch out of him. Bucky’s gun tumbled from his hands. Skidding along the walkway, towards the open gash of the missing plane.

The gun teetered. There was a heartbeat where it looked like it might stop resting on the very edge of the walkway. Then it tipped. Spiraling down into nothingness.

The sound of more wind made Steve whip around.

One of them had made it to a plane. Not just any plane. The New York plane. They couldn’t let him get away. The glass hood of the cockpit was sliding closed. 

Steve sprinted for the plane and it slowly lowered into launch position. He jumped onto the nose, raising his shield to smash in the cockpit.

At that moment one of the other Hydra pilots tackled him from the side, sending his shield spinning away from him into the belly of the plane. The attacker pinned Steve to the little plane, even as the pilot inside hit the switch to launch them.

The little plane dropped away, Steve and the pilot clinging to the roof.

Bucky screamed like he had been shot. His world went red. He threw himself at the last of the Hydra pilots, not really caring what happened to him, as long as Steve didn’t die for nothing. 

He lunged for the shield, bringing it up between him and his attackers. He was going to finish this at all costs.

★

The Hydra pilot that had tackled Steve clawed at his head and shoulders trying to dislodge him. Steve did his best to shove the man away without losing his grip on the cockpit. He was fighting like a feral thing now clinging to a ridiculous desperate hope that he wasn’t going to die, that he could make it back to Bucky somehow, despite there being no obvious way to do that.

Inside the plane the pilot jerked the stick. Rocking the plane side to side as true wings folded out.

Steve lost his grip on the glass canopy and slid heartstopingly towards the nose of the plane. He managed to catch himself on one of the nose fins just before he tumbled away from the limited safety of the plane. His attacker still clung to his back.

The pilot jerked the stick again. This time the plane pitched into a steep climb.

Steve and his attacker reversed the direction of their slide. Plummeting towards the spinning blades of the plane's propeller. Steve’s attacker lost his hold on Steve. They fell to either side of the main tail fin. 

Steve caught it. 

His attacker didn’t.

Steve looked away as his scream cut off, replaced with a horrible mechanical noise.

His eyes landed on a bright red handle just inside the dome of the cockpit. Maybe his situation wasn’t completely hopeless after all.

He let go with one hand. Fumbling for the canopy release latch before he could lose his grip. 

The canopy slid forward before the pilot knew what was happening. Steve lunged in and yanked the bright red handle. It did exactly what he had hoped it would. 

The pilot’s seat ejected violently. The pilot screaming as it arced away from the plane.

Steve didn’t have time to see what happened to him after that. He hurled himself into the space where the seat had been and closed the canopy. Hope and determination returning at full force, pushing desperation out of him entirely.

There was a jerky start while he figured out how the stick worked. It didn’t take him long to get a good enough grasp of the controls for what he had in mind. He wasn’t trying to land the thing after all. 

He banked around the huge plane. Time to finish what he’d started.

Little gun turrets on the top of the larger plane spit blasts of blue light at him.

Steve shook the stick to dodge them. One caught the tail fin just as he reached the top of his arc. Gritting his teeth, he brushed off the hit. The little plane didn’t have to keep flying much longer.

He finished his arc and got the nose of his plane pointed at the rear of the Valkyrie.

Steve braced for impact. This was going to hurt.

★

The sound of shearing metal made Bucky turn towards the tail of the plane. He swiveled, ducking instinctivly behind the shield on his arm.

A shiny black missile tore into the plane.

Bucky blinked at the now scratched up writing on the nose of the projectile. New York. Steve’s plane.

Steve clambered ungracefully out of the wreckage. Stumbling to his knee and breathing heavily. 

Bucky didn’t know if he wanted to kill him or kiss him. Right now it looked like his idiot best friend could survive anything. It also looked like Steve had decided to test that theory and find out exactly how far he could push it.

“I know your ma taught you not to leave your things lying around.” He slipped the shield off his arm and offered it back to Steve. He’d decided what to do with the punk after they survived this.

“I won’t tell her if you don’t.” Steve looked around the inside of the plane. Of the five pilots that had been left when he fell, four were dead and one was missing. Bucky had been busy.

“Do other people think you’re funny?” Bucky asked as Steve made sure his shield was secure on his arm this time.

Steve grinned. What was it about almost dying that made everything feel so sharp and defined? “Yeah, for like the last year people have found me hilarious. Especially women. Well, women other than Peggy, She never laughs at my jokes either.”

Bucky sighed and shook his head, following Steve as they searched the rest of the plane for their quarry. He missed his gun.

★

There was nothing inherently intimidating about the door to the cockpit. They both stopped involuntarily outside it anyway. It was just a narrow metal door, there should only be one or two guys left on the other side. There was no reason they shouldn’t just kick it down and burst in guns blazing. Aside from the fact they didn’t have any guns. They slowly opened it just a crack so they could peek in.

The room looked empty. The pilot’s chair was turned away from them. It was more than large enough to hide behind.

Steve geasuted for Bucky to stay at the door. He was unarmed and Steve didn’t need him getting pinned down. They were in enough trouble as it was. He had his shield at least.

As silently as he could he crept down the stairs. The grating on the floor creaked as he skirted the glowing generator. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. Even this close to the chair he still couldn’t see Schmit.

There was a whir behind him. An energy weapon powering up.

Steve whipped around, catching the first blast from Schmit’s cannon on his shield and deflecting it into the ceiling. It tore through the metal there, opening a ragged gash and letting wind and snow swirl into the space.

“You don’t give up, do you?” Schmit standing confidently at the bottom of the stairs, he sounded more impressed than anything. He must have been hiding in the shadows of one of the buttresses that surrounded the cockpit.

Steve steeled himself. One more push and they could end this. “Nope.”

Steve launched himself at Schmit, deflecting two more cannon blasts before he made it across the distance. He knocked the cannon aside with his shield and planted his fist firmly in Schmit’s gut.

Over the past year, Steve had gotten used to being bigger, stronger, and faster than the people he was fighting. He was none of those things in this fight, and it showed. Schmit had him on the ropes from his first swing. Remembering how much the brutal punches from before had hurt, he tried to keep it primarily a grappling game.

It only sort of worked. His shield went flying again.

Bucky swore silently. They were wrestling right on top of his best shot at a weapon. _Damn it Steve, get out of the way_. Not that he knew what he would do if he got to the discarded cannon. He couldn’t shoot Schmit without hitting Steve too, but at least he wouldn’t be completely helpless.

Schmit grabbed for the cannon. Steve wrapped an arm around his neck, dragging him backward as he tried to choke him out. They bounced off a pillar and tumbled over the generator.

Bucky couldn’t take it. He had to help somehow. He was halfway across the room when Steve and Schmit crashed into the controls.

The plane nosedived and the floor dropped away, leaving them essentially weightless.

Steve and Schmit bounced off the ceiling. Tumbling together, neither able to get a solid purchase as they floated.

Bucky struggled to the controls, grabbing the yolk and yanking it up to level them off, 

Schmit shoved him aside, flicked a few switches before turning his attention to Bucky. “I see that you have brought your little friend. It will make no difference.” With menacing slowness he drew the pistol from his side and leveled it at Bucky.

Steve grabbed Schmit by the back of the jacket and hurled him towards the center of the room. “Pick on someone your own size.”

“Why do you fight this?”

Steve dodged behind a pillar, pleased to see Bucky taking cover on the other side of the cabin.

“You could have the power of the gods!” Schmit fired in his approximate direction.

Steve skittered to the next pillar. He needed to get his shield back.

“Yet you wear a flag on your chest and think you fight a battle of nations.”

Steve braced his back against the last buttress in the line. He was so close. All he had to do was make it across the open space, pick up his shield and then… He didn’t know what then, but he’d at least have something to put between him and the gun fire while he figured it out.

“I have seen the future. There are no flags.” Schmit was on a roll now. He clearly had a long monologue about the future he was building and its superiority over all that had come before.

Bucky punched him hard in the back of the head. “You talk too damn much.”

The Red Skull reeled away. Stumbling and landing hard on the glowing machine in the center of the cockpit. The compartment holding the tesseract opened with a hiss and a flash of blue light. Tendrils of something crossed between fog and slow electricity twisted off its surface.

“What have you done?” Schmit exclaimed, fear and worry creeping into his voice for the first time as far as Steve or Bucky knew. He picked up the blue cube with shaking hands.

The light inside grew brighter. Shimmering pulses of energy and waves of erie sound emanated from it. A ball of energy lanced up from the cube, bursting against the ceiling and transforming into a technicolor galaxy. Steve didn’t know if it was a projection or a tear in the fabric of space, and frankly he didn’t want to find out. Just looking at it made his skin prickle. 

Schmit gazed up in wonder. His fingertips started to dissolve. Twinkling away to join the stars. Slowly at first, then as if had been waiting for him to notice, speeding up as he looked at the disappearing flesh. He screamed, but his body didn’t seem to be under his control any more. There was another flash of blue-white and suddenly he was streaming away, rainbow streaks of light tearing him to pieces and dragging him into the celestial abyss.

A wave of blue pulsed out from the cube again, passing through the walls of the plane and disappearing. 

Silence filled the cabin. Schmit was gone. The galaxy was gone. Even the tesseract was quiet. Resting on the floor where Schmit had been as if nothing had happened.

Steve took a step toward his shield. 

Bucky took a step towards Steve.

There was a hissing noise. The cube melted through the steel grate of the floor. Then two layers of the fuselage. Then it dropped away. Neither of the remaining men was sad to see it go.

“That was…” Bucky moved to stand over the hole. “By far the creepiest thing I have ever seen.”

Steve dropped into the pilot’s chair. Very aware of how fast the horizon was approaching. The questions raised by a cube that he refused to believe belonged to this planet could wait. They had to do something fast or they might as well have missed the plane.


	6. January 28, 1945-Continued 3

The fighting was winding down. The men were carrying out their own injured. More support staff were arriving; Doctors and nurses that were fresh and had full bags of supplies. Dawn exchanged a look with Rosie, who nodded. Their job was done. She could go looking for her boy now.

Dawn fought her way against the flow of men deeper into the complex. Bucky would be in the thick of things. Fighting might be over, but there was still lots of work to do before they could call the base truly pacified. 

She kept her eyes open for any of the other Howling Commandos too. They would all know where Bucky and Steve were by now. Peggy might even have sent one of them to find her.

Dozens of faces passed her. Some with rough field bandages wrapping injuries. A handful of Hydra prisoners. They were far less intimidating with their masks pulled off. They were just scared men under the black hoods.

One of the guys from Jack’s team recognized her and pointed her up a set of stairs carved into the wall of a huge airplane hanger.

She found the rest of the Commandos in a sort of control room overlooking the valley outside. They were all alternating between bursts of activity and this kind of stillness that only came from knowing you needed to do something but having no clue what.

None of them even acknowledged her presence as she slipped inside. The most she got was a bemused look from Colonel Phillips before he returned to the chart he was poring over.

There was only one person who might tell her what she needed to know. A calm eye at the center of the storm. Dawn hurried to Peggy’s side. “What’s going on?”

“The boys are on the plane,” Peggy answered tightly. There were nail marks in the sleeve of her leather jacket from where she had been clutching her own arm to stop herself tearing the room to pieces in frustration.

Dawn felt like her knees were about to give out. She had seen the plane take off. She had known it was a bad thing. Assumed that the RAF would be taking care of it. She hadn’t even considered that Bucky could be on it.

The radio squawked, deafening in the silence of the control room. “This is Captain Rogers-- Come in-- Do you read me -- “

Dawn pressed her hand to her heart. They were alive.

★

The seconds ticked by like eons as Steve waited for a response.

Next to him, Bucky stared at the navigation console with a furrowed brow. Steve left him to it. Bucky was more mechanical than he was. If either of them was going to figure out how to land this thing it was Buck.

"Receiving." At last the radio crackled and a familiar voice called out over the speaker. Morita collected as always. “Captain Rogers, What is your lo--”

There was a scuffle on the other end of the line. Then Peggy’s sweet voice took over the broadcast. “Steve, is that you? Are you alright?”

He nodded, then remembered she couldn’t see him. “Fine. I’m fine. Bucky too.”

“Where’s Schmidt?” She asked.

“Dead,” Steve answered. He’d vanished into the same blue as those hit by the beam rifles, and the cube itself had eaten through the bottom of the plane. No way he could have survived that.

He could almost hear her relief over the radio as she sighed. “What about the plane?”

“That part… is a little harder to explain,” Steve hesitated.

“Schmidt locked the navigation system,” Bucky clarified, coming to stand behind him. “This thing looks like a set piece from War of the Worlds, but it's got more than enough power to take us all the way to the East Coast.”

“I’ll get Howard on the line,” Peggy promised. Maybe Stark would have an idea. 

“We’re sitting on a hundred tons of explosives,” Steve told her, his hands holding the steering apparatus with a white-knuckled grip. 

“Yeah, I don’t think hotwiring this thing is an option,” Bucky agreed. Even between the two of them, this thing was beyond their capabilities. Apparently on/off was too simplistic for a 'genius' like Schmidt.

As they waited for someone to find Stark, Steve glanced out of the window at the expanse of frigid blue below them. His mind whirled with plans, each more audacious and outlandish than the next. 

“I’ve got to put her in the water.” The words were out almost before he’d realized he’d spoken. 

“What?!” Bucky threw himself back at the navigation controls. That couldn’t be right. There had to be another option.

Over the radio, Peggy’s voice was equally shocked, though she was trying to keep the panic under control. “You said you couldn’t steer it.”

“I can’t,” Steve confirmed. He pulled his compass out of his belt and set it on the console where he could see the picture of Peggy. “But I think I can crash it.”

“Please. Don’t do this. We have time. We can work it out.” Peggy’s voice cracked in a way that wasn’t due to poor reception.

Steve looked sadly at the picture of Peggy. He wished that were true. They could have had such a beautiful life. Him with Peggy. Bucky with Dawn. Their kids would have grown up together. They would have spent the holidays at each other's houses. He hoped the girls would be alright. They were both tough. They would find someone else to have that future with. They would be able to have a future. Because of what he and Bucky were doing now. “Right now we’re in the middle of nowhere. If we wait any longer a lot of people are going to die.”

That made Bucky look up from where he was trying to figure out the navigation controls. It wasn’t that Steve was wrong. It was his tone. That it sounded distinctly like the kind of speech you made right before you became a martyr. That was exactly the instinct that had gotten them into this mess in the first place. Steve volunteered for a potentially deadly experiment, and they chose him because he was willing to dive on a grenade to protect others.

He scanned Steve’s face. Hard sad eyes. Determined jaw. Looking directly at the photo of the woman he loved. _Yup. Punk is still a martyr._

Bucky didn’t believe in diving on grenades. Not when you could kick them away instead.

“You melodramatic idiot.” Bucky slapped Steve across the back of the head. They weren’t going to die in this plane if he had anything to say about it. “Peggy, you still there?”

“Barnes! What’s going on.” Peggy sounded absolutely frantic over the radio.

Bucky took a deep breath before he answered. He hated when Steve was right.

“He’s not wrong. Putting the plane in the water is the best option. We’re 69.033132, -64.153356 headed pretty much due south. We’re over open water, but there’s an island on our starboard side. Big ass thing.” There was a lot of ice out there too. Bucky didn’t think mentioning that would help anyone.

★

Peggy looked up at the control room. She didn't know where that was. North, obviously, somewhere over the Atlantic. The Atlantic was a big place. The other Commandos and the Colonel all met her worry with blank panicked looks. All except for Morita, who was still trying to get Stark on the radio. Pinky scrambled to unfold a map.

“Baffin.” Dawn blurted, her nails digging into the back of the chair. Perfect grades in geography were finally good for something. “That’s Baffin island. They're north of Quebec.”

Peggy pressed the button to transmit again. “We think we know where you are. We can get to you.” She and Howard would figure out how to get to them. If she had to _walk_ she would get to them.

★

Bucky closed his eyes and let out the breath he was holding. _Thank God_. That meant they just had to get out of the plane without dying. “We’re gonna bail out of the back before we hit the water.”

“I don’t think there is a life raft in here, Buck,” Steve whispered so the radio wouldn't pick it up.

“We’ll figure it out,” Bucky whispered back briskly. Of course, there wasn't a life raft. Why would their lives be that easy? If Hydra didn’t believe in life rafts, they probably didn’t believe in parachutes either. _Damn it_. They _would_ figure it out. “Peggy, if you let me freeze to death with this idiot I’ll never forgive you.”

“We’ll be there, Barnes. Just keep yourselves alive a little longer. That’s an order.” Peggy sounded confident. Bucky wondered who else was in the room that she was reassuring. The rest of the team was probably frantic.

“You heard the lady, Cap.” Bucky grabbed the compass and shoved it into Steve’s pocket. “Jam that stick and let’s get out of here.”

★

Steve had been right, there weren't any life rafts. 

Bucky had been overly pessimistic. All of the stupid little missile plane things had ejection seats with parachutes.

They crammed into the same one. Neither willing to risk the other doing something silly or reckless at the last minute. Bucky would worry about being embarrassed by the idea of sitting in Steve's lap some other time. Right now he was more worried about his friend doing something 'heroic'.

They watched the Valkyrie tear itself apart on the waves, dangling from a bubble of silk. A vicious wind dragged them further over the crash site. A skink of oil burned on the surface of the waves. Jagged chunks of wreckage bobbed alongside sheets of on the surface while the main body of the plane sunk slowly into the icy water.

They were too low for the parachute to slow them all the way down, but it helped. 

Steve lost his hold on Bucky as they hit the water hard. His world turned a dark blue green as a wave from the crash pushed his head under.

Steve broke the surface sputtering and gasping. He had a brief moment of panic when he couldn’t immediately see Bucky’s head. He couldn't see much of anything. All around him hunks of metal and burning rubber littered the waves.

A hunk of wreckage sunk below the waves and he spotted him. Dark hair plastered to his forehead, skin almost blue.

Steve grabbed the back of Bucky’s jacket, towing him towards the most buoyant looking part of the broken plane. A concave section of fuselage floating out of the main debris field. They needed to get out of the water or they would freeze to death.

They dragged themselves onto the makeshift raft. Steve boosting Bucky up first, before hualing himself exhausted out of the waves. His shield clanked dully as he dropped onto his back. The darn thing had stuck with him through the whole disaster. That was one small miracle. He wasn’t sure they would be getting another. 

Steve took a long moment to catch his breath. It was hard in the cold sharp air. It felt uncomfortably like a bad asthma attack. Or maybe pneumonia. He might have water in his lungs. Coughing felt like an impossible amount of effort. He rolled his head to the side. Bucky was breathing at least. Beyond that he looked rough. “Y-yy-y you a-alright, B-BbB-Buck?”

“N-nn-not. T-too b-bb-bad.” Alive. Which was honestly a bit of a surprise at this point. His teeth were chattering and he couldn’t stop shaking. Still. Alive had to count for something. 

Steve scanned the horizon. Nothing but dark waves and burning wreckage as far as he could see. “K-k-kinda looks l-like t-the end-dd-d of the l-ll-line.”

Peggy and Howard were looking for them and they had a pretty good idea where they were. Bucky wasn’t willing to give up yet. They could still pull this off. “Th-the-they’ll be h-here.”

“G-glad I-I’m w-ww-with y-yyou.” Steve chattered, laying back on the little raft.

“S-ss-shut up-p. Th-th-they’ll be h-here.” Bucky hugged his arms around himself. He was so cold. 

Bucky closed his eyes. All he could hear were his teeth chattering and the waves lapping at their little island. 

He looked back at his best friend. How many times had he seen Steve shivering with cold like that? He didn’t have a hot water bottle this time. Couldn’t turn up the heat or pile another blanket on him. “Sss-S- Steve?”

“Y-yy-yeah?”

“M-mm-me t-ttt-too.”

Bucky’s limbs were heavy. It was strange, the longer he lay here, the warmer he felt. He shifted so his arm was pressed against Steve’s. There was something oddly right about it being the two of them together at the end. _Love you, Sunshine. Sorry I didn’t make it back this time._

Sleep tugged at him. He let it pull him under.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stick with us.
> 
> All tags still apply.


	7. May 10- May 11, 1945

** May 10, 1945 **

The first thing that Bucky noticed was that he was warm. He let himself drift in it for a moment as he returned to consciousness. He could feel the soft knit of the blankets under his hands, hear the muted chatter of other voices nearby. And next to him, a familiar voice was reading. 

_“My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, And true plain hearts do in the faces rest; Where can we find two better hemispheres Without sharp north, without declining west? Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally; If our two loves be one, or thou and I Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.”_

That voice warmed him even more than the blankets. It was sad though. Like she had spent too long crying. He struggled to open his eyes. “Sunshine?”

“Bucky!” Dawn launched herself out of the chair and towards the bed, her book tumbling to the floor. He was awake. His eyes were open. He was _talking._ She'd almost given up hope, but her Bucky was back.

Bucky took her in with a feeling of amazement. His girl was here, looking like something out of a dream. She wasn't wearing her uniform. Instead she was swimming in an oversized grey sweater with sleeves that fell over her hands, cinched in at the waist by a men’s belt. A round white collar peaked out of the neckline. Her rusty brown skirt swirled around her knees. She was such a schoolgirl. One of the bright things from the secretarial college he used to walk by on the way to work. Too smart for a schmuck like him for sure.

It felt like he was encased in cement, but he managed to raise his hand to her hair. No helmet. No wimple. Just her beautiful hair, loose and spilling over her shoulders in soft curls. He combed his fingers through the curls slowly, his entire arm shaking. "Why ya makin' the story sound so sad, doll? They're in love."

She leaned into his hand, covering it with her own. “Not my fault, you woke up at the wrong part of the story.”

He was so tired. His eyes kept trying to close. “You keep reading. I’ll do better next time.”

Dawn smiled and kissed his hand, the tiniest hiccup of a relieved sob escaping her. She sat back in her chair and tried to find her place on the page again. It was hard with a film of tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

“Hey Sunshine?” Bucky reached for her. Or tried to. It was more like letting his arm fall in vaguely the right direction. She shouldn’t be sad. They were together. There was no reason to be sad. “What ‘cha doin’ all the way over there?”

Dawn kicked out of her shoes and climbed onto the bed with a slightly hysterical laugh. She curled in against his side, tucking her legs under her and resting the book in her lap. Bucky’s arm went around her waist, holding her tight. A small sense of rightness returned to her world.

Bucky was asleep again before she reached the bottom of the page.

** May 11, 1945 **

The second time Bucky woke up the world felt less fuzzy. He felt more like himself. He was able to recognize the room he was in as being some kind of hospital recovery room. Apparently stopping a madman from incinerating the Eastern Seaboard earned even a non commissioned officer like him a private room. There were flowers in a canning jar on the dresser. Not fancy flowers. Just a handful of mismatched blooms with some water. A stack of a dozen books sat within reach of the chair, mostly dense historical things, but he spotted a few he recognized. _White Fang, The ABC Murders, John Carter of Mars._ The blanket on the bed wasn’t standard hospital or military issue either. It was a carefully pieced quilt with rows of vines stitched around the borders. Someone had put a lot of work in to make the generic room into something more homey. 

There was only one person Bucky though would add these kinds of touches for him. The same person currently warming his side. 

Dawn was still curled in the bed. Her head on his chest and arms tight around him. Her breathing was slow. Her book was resting next to them, carefully closed, a ribbon marking her spot.

“Hey,” Bucky whispered, stroking the back of her head softly. She was still in civilian clothing. Her hair still loose.

“Hi,” Dawn whispered back. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. She hadn’t meant to doze off. The sound of his heartbeat was just too soothing. She hadn’t slept well since he’d gone down with the plane. It was almost impossible to sleep in the straight-backed wooden chair, and she would only let Ginny talk her into moving to the cot at the nurses’ station if there was someone else to sit with Bucky. She hadn’t wanted him to wake up alone. And if it meant she’d spent her share of nights asleep on the floor, well there was nobody to know that but her. And Ginny.

Bucky linked his fingers through hers. She didn’t look sad anymore. Just tired. He could fix that with a few more days of insisting she curl up with him. He doubted anyone would call them out for ‘impropriety’. Bucky had almost died. He had earned some time with his girl. He didn’t have the strength or energy to do anything that would 'dishonor' her anyway. “How long was I out?”

Dawn lifted their linked hands to her face, rubbing her lips against his knuckles. Too long. “Six hours, this time. A little over four months total.”

“Months!” Bucky sat up, almost knocking Dawn out of the narrow bed in the process. “Where’s Steve? What’s happening with the war? Is everyone else all right? Where are we?”

“Bucky! Breathe!” Dawn ordered sternly. She reached over and hit a button on the bedside table. “I’ll answer your questions but only if you calm down.”

Bucky let out a long breath. She was right, he needed to be calm. And not just because his vision had blurred out a little when he sat up. "Okay... Okay, I'm calm."

Dawn pushed him back down against the pillows. "We're in a hospital in Quebec. They brought you here because it was the closest Allied hospital to where they found you."

"The war is over. Or at least part of it is. Germany surrendered on the 7th. Stark made some vaguely menacing statements about plans for the Pacific theater when he came to visit. I don't what to know what he has planned, but I know it doesn't involve you." She pulled his hand back into her lap. With gentle fingers she tried to massage away the sudden tightness there.

“And Steve? Where is Steve?” Bucky sat up again. Steve had been so blue the last time he had seen him. And now Dawn wasn't telling him what had happened to him. He was dead. Bucky had survived and Steve hadn't, just like he had always feared.

She tried to push him down again. Even weak as he was, Bucky was still too strong for her to move. “He’s here. He’s in the hospital. If you calm down for one second--”

Bucky swung his legs out of bed. “I have to see him.”

“Down, Romeo.” Ginny maneuvered her way into the room with a wheelchair full of a disgruntled Steve. “This one has been just as antsy about seeing you. He was furious that you had the nerve to fall back to sleep before he got a chance to talk to you.”

“I could have walked,” Steve protested.

“I could have sedated you.” Ginny shot back. Bucky noticed that she was wearing her uniform. 

“Would that even work on him?” Dawn wanted to know. “We’ve already seen he can’t get drunk. One would assume he’d burn through a sedative relatively quickly.”

“I’m sure I could get my hands on some horse tranquillisers somewhere,” Ginny grumbled, rolling Steve towards the head of the bed.

★

Ginny and Dawn left the boys to talk while they found them food. Steve had been ravenous when he had woken up and Dawn was sure Bucky would be too, once he stopped worrying and let himself think about it. 

The line for breakfast in the hospital canteen was long. It was always long. The food in the canteen tended to be slightly better than what most people could make with their rations. Dawn and Ginny joined the end of the line.

Waiting was the worst. That was the sum total of Dawn’s revelation for the last few months. It wasn’t the terrible things that had happened. It was the waiting to find out how bad they were. Waiting to see if they would find the plane. Waiting for Bucky to wake up. Even this waiting in line. She wanted to do something. To be productive in some way, not just passively watch the world go by around them and hope.

"He's going to be alright, right?" She wondered, absently fingering the hem of her sleeve.

"He woke up,” Ginny reminded her. “That was the biggest thing. And he obviously remembers who you are and who Steve is. That's a good sign."

Dawn filled a bowl with enough oatmeal that the canteen clerk raised an eyebrow at her. She ignored the judgement and drizzled cream and honey over it. Bucky needed the food. Two apples joined the bowl on the tray, as did a mug of coffee.

“Sergeant’s awake.” Ginny muttered by way of explanation.

The clerk nodded and added an extra serving of sausages to the tray Ginny was building for Steve.

★

Steve filled Bucky in on everything he had missed, at least what he knew from the letters he had received. What the rest of the team were doing. How the war had wrapped up in Europe. The news from the Pacific theatre. What Steve had been doing for the last week.

Bucky listened to the whole story, doing his best not to interrupt with a million questions. Steve got around to answering most of his questions eventually. By the time Steve ran out of things to tell him he had answered most of them anyway.

"Swear you're alright." Bucky stretched his hand towards Steve, still not entirely believing that they had made it.

Steve clasped his arm, squeezing affectionately. "I swear, Buck. You're the one who had us worried. I've been up for almost a week. Well, 'up' is relative." Steve gestured to the chair. "Sister Simard won't let me out of this thing."

"Simard?" Bucky perked up, surprised. "She's going by her married name now?"

Steve nodded. "That's how she got herself transferred over here. Walked into the General's office when they got back to camp, announced that she was married and slapped three letters all recommending that she get reassigned back here on his desk. She's our ward sister. Only people who can tell her what to do are the matron and the doctors and she will absolutely tell off the doctors if she thinks they're wrong."

"Three letters?” Bucky whistled. “Who did she con into writing those on short notice?"

Steve looked at Bucky like it was obvious. "We're in the _Canadian_ recovery hospital, Buck. It wasn't short notice, she had them so she could come home with Jack if something happened to him."

"That makes sense. Is Jack here too?" Bucky wasn’t sure if Jack being here was good or bad news. It would mean he was alive, it would also mean he had gotten hurt. Ginny would never forgive them if Jack had gotten hurt on their mission.

"He's still over there, helping Peggy clean up. Ginny came because Dawn needed her here." Steve looked slightly wistful at the thought of Peggy. This was the longest they had been apart since he had joined the war. He missed her. Her conversation more than anything else, but her kisses too, and the way she always knew exactly what his plans needed to make them work. Peggy could have convinced Ginny to let him out of the wheelchair.

"I can’t believe Peggy’s not here.” That had been the most surprising part of Steve’s story. Not that Peggy had essentially taken over command of the Howling Commandos, there was no one Bucky trusted more when it came to keeping the boys in line. That she had let Steve out of her sight. Although they were with Dawn and Ginny. Maybe she trusted the other women to handle Steve’s recovery.

"She stayed to finish what we started. She's uhh." Steve rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "She's the one who packed up our stuff to ship it over here."

"Shit," Bucky's eyes went wide. He knew what was sitting in the top of Steve's footlocker. He'd gone with him to buy it two days before they left on the mission to get Zola. If Peggy had seen it, and there was no way she had missed it if she opened the chest... "Did she--"

"She found the ring.” Steve pushed his hair back from his forehead. If he’d known they were going to go down with the plane he would have given it to one of the other guys to hold onto. He’d had plans for how to ask her properly. “I woke up to a scathing letter. She absolutely tore me a new one for not talking to her before I spent all that money."

Bucky waited. That definitely wasn’t the end of the story. He’d told Steve to talk to Peggy before he bought the ring, not because he thought she’d say no, because Peggy didn’t like surprises. He’d also told Steve not to spend so much money on the ring. Even if the platinum band with three tiny diamonds on either side of a larger stone was the right ‘scale’ for her hand, whatever that meant. "And?"

Steve sighed and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. "She said yes."

Bucky smacked Steve with the pillow off the bed. Was his friend ever not going to be a melodramatic punk? "You lucky goddamn idiot. She is way too good for you."

"I know she is." Steve grinned like an idiot. "You'll stand up for me, right?"

"Like I'd let anyone else." Bucky snorted. He wouldn’t trust anyone else to get Steve to the end of the aisle any more than he would trust anyone else to keep Steve out of trouble when he ran headlong into battle.

"Should'a bought you a ring that day too." Steve elbowed Bucky’s knee. He’d never thought he’d get a chance to be this happy. A whole long life with his girl and his best friend stretched ahead of him the way it never had before. Their kids would grow up together, they would vacation on the shore in the summer, and argue about who was going to carve the turkey at Thanksgiving. It was going to be a good life.

"Soon as they let us out of here." Bucky looked at the door, a feeling of deep contentment washing over him. Their war was over. They could start their real lives now.

The door opened like he had summoned her with his thoughts. Dawn pushed into the room with a full tray that lifted his spirits almost as much as she did. He was starving.

"What are you boys talking about?" Dawn asked, balancing the breakfast tray across Bucky's knees. They both looked so happy. It was a nice change from Bucky's blank slackness or Steve's deep furrows of concern.

Bucky slipped a hand around the back of her neck and pulled her down so he could kiss her cheek. "Just catching up."


	8. May 12- June 12, 1945

** May, 1945 **

It took Bucky a week before he could convince Dawn that he should be allowed to do more than totter to the toilet or the shower. He didn't want to think about how those functions had been taken care of while he was unconscious. He wanted the first time Dawn saw him naked to be a romantic, touching moment. Or at least, he wanted to be able to impress her slightly more than someone limp and drooling could.

The doctors would have let him up two days earlier. But Dawn wouldn't hear it. Bucky respected the doctors, but he wasn't planning to spend the rest of his life with them.

Unlike Ginny, Dawn hadn't transferred to the hospital. She had resigned her commission entirely. Bucky had her undivided attention. The doctors largely gave her free range on his care, they were short staffed and him having a personal nurse was one more thing off their plate. He should feel bad about taking up so much of her time, but he didn't. He loved that she only left to bathe and change. Loved waking up with his face buried in her hair. Loved stealing kisses from her when she was distracted.

Even once she gave in and let him out of bed, he was largely confined to a wheelchair. His girl would push him around the hospital grounds and they would sit together in the sun. Dawn would read to him. He'd even talked her into picking up a couple copies of Popular Mechanics to mix in with all the novels. She made him stay in the chair though. Even when he wanted to sprawl on the new spring grass and hold her close.

They took short walks up and down the hall outside his room. Sometimes with Steve. Sometimes just the two of them. 

Steve's walks were longer than Bucky's, and he was allowed to take the stairs after the fourth day. Bucky insisted that he could keep up. He felt like he could walk for miles. The severely restricted exercise was more frustrating than anything. 

Dawn just glared and reminded him that Steve had super soldier serum and he didn't. 

At least she had given in about sleeping in the chair. It hadn't actually taken that much convincing. He'd just given her his best big sad puppy dog eyes and told her that he slept better when he knew she was there. Which was true. He slept a lot better knowing she was sleeping too. She'd spent every night since with her head on his chest.

By the end of the month Bucky felt good as new. Even if his girl didn't believe him and insisted on babying him. But babying him involved her making sure he had extra meat everyday so he couldn't complain too much. He was starving, and the protein helped a lot, even if it was liver.

The last week of May, brought another slight improvement to Bucky's situation. Someone had decided Steve needed a half side of bacon to help with his recovery. Steve had shared, Buck decided that heaven was a bacon sandwich and his Sunshine sitting on his knee.

** June 12, 1945 **

Bucky was now allowed to make short trips out of the hospital. A privilege he was abusing today. Not that he didn't love taking Dawn to a bookstore for no reason. They'd been a few times now and watching her was always like watching a kid in a candy store. He just had some news he thought might go down easier in her happy place. 

She was balanced on a small stool now, enthusiastically searching a dusty top shelf for volumes everyone else had passed by. 

Bucky was supposed to be sitting in a chair a few feet away 'resting', but he felt fine and his Sunshine was enough of a klutz that he didn't entirely trust her clambering about without someone to catch her. If that gave him an excuse to keep his hands on her hips, it was just a side benefit.

Dawn traced the spine of a book. "I know I already have a copy of _King of Elfland's Daughter,_ but it's at home and the cover on this one is so much prettier."

"Pass it down, Sunshine.” She deserved pretty things. Pretty things and an easy life full of joy. Bucky would do everything he could to give her both those things.

Dawn turned around on her stool with a frown. "You're not going to tease me for buying the same book twice?"

"I'll buy it for you.” Bucky reached up. If she wanted a second copy of the book, it had to be a good one. He loved listening to her read when she loved a book. “We haven't read that one yet."

Dawn set her hands on her hips and glared down at him, not giving up the book. Bucky loved to tease her. He would only give up the opportunity if he was trying to butter her up for something. "James Buchanan Barnes. What aren't you telling me?"

Bucky winced. He should have known she’d find him out. “We got orders today.”

“Orders? What more could they possibly want you to do?” Dawn’s heart was in her throat. All she could see was Bucky when he had first been brought into the hospital. Cold and blue and deathly still.

“Shhh. Nothing like that, doll.” Bucky said soothingly. She didn’t need to be afraid any more. “They want us to fly back to Europe and do some public relations stuff. Rebuilding, not combat. Come with us. With me,”

Dawn hesitated, curling her arms around the book she was holding protectively. That was better than him going back into combat. She still didn’t love the idea. He was a hero of the war now. That made him a target. What if someone decided to make a statement, and use him to do it. He would be so vulnerable standing up on a stage next to Steve. “You’re sure it will be safe?”

“I’m sure.” Bucky lifted her off the stool and into the circle of his arm. He would make sure she was safe. “Wouldn’t it be nice to see Europe and sleep in beds instead of in a tent? I’d say bed, but I don’t think they’ll let me keep pulling that trick if I’m fit for service.”

"You really want me to come?" Dawn’s breath caught at the way his eyes sparkled. They hadn’t really talked about what would happen after the war. There had been a few vague promises. Bucky had tossed around the idea that she should visit him in New York, but that was all it had been, an idea. This was more than an idea.

"I don't want to let you out of my sight ever again." Bucky checked over his shoulder to make sure that the clerk couldn’t see them. Tucked out of the way in their corner, they should be safe. He cupped her jaw, and kissed her long and slow. She needed to know that he meant every word. “Love you, Sunshine.”

Bucky kept his arm around her as they paid for her books and walked slowly back to the hospital. Forget his sight, he didn’t really want to let her out of arm's reach.


	9. June 29, 1945

** June 29, 1945 **

The train rocked softly as it made its way across Burgundy. The Howling Commandos had the entire car to themselves. Morita, Dugan, and Pinky were playing cards. Happy was trouncing Junior at chess. Happy’s wife sat next to him, knitting a pair of socks and smiling affectionately at her husband. Falsworth was working his way through a stack of letters that needed answering. Dernier was sprawled sideways across three seats, snoring at top volume.

Steve and Bucky had claimed two banks of facing seats specifically for them and their girls. Not that Steve and Peggy got to take advantage of the peace of the team’s car very often. They had spent most of the trip down the train in the officer’s car, trying to coordinate everything.

Bucky and Dawn got to enjoy the prime seats. If ‘enjoy’ was the right word for being trapped on a train all day, with the only breaks being for the men to traipse about on a stage and pretend that they remembered the names of all the people they were introduced to. Just now, Bucky had his feet thrown up on the seat across from him, his hat shoved over his eyes as he tried to doze. Dawn leaned against his side, a sewing project in her lap. She was trying to use all their enforced downtime to do something productive. She thought it was going to turn out reasonably well in the end, but right now it was being frustrating. Silk was a pain to work with. It wanted to slip out of place constantly, something not helped by the movement of the train. She had to be doubly carefully since if she slipped and stabbed herself with the needle, she would get blood on her fabric and leave horrible red brown stains. Which was absolutely not acceptable for something so important.

Peggy groaned and slumped into her seat. 

Dawn understood that feeling. It had been a long few days. She tucked herself a little more firmly under Bucky’s arm and carefully tied off another knot in her sewing. She was worn out and all she’d been doing was watching. Well, watching and sewing.

Steve pulled Peggy’s legs into his lap, gently massaging her calves. “What have we got tonight?” 

“Nothing actually.” Peggy sighed and rubbed her eyes. “For once, you have an entire evening free.”

Steve perked up a little. “The whole evening?”

“Yes. There was supposed to be a dinner, but they cancelled this morning. Senator Brant has food poisoning.” Peggy said dismissively. 

Bucky suppressed the urge to laugh. He knew exactly what Steve was thinking. Peggy was just too tired and irritable from all the work she’d been doing to shift gears the way he had. Steve had romance on the brain, while Peggy was still stuck on diplomacy. 

Steve pulled Peggy all the way into his lap. Kissing his fiancee playfully on the cheek. “Go on a date with me tonight?” 

Peggy blushed and mumbled something about Steve being ridiculous and undignified. From the way she nestled into his arms, it was definitely a yes to the date. Steve grinned and caught her hand so he could kiss her engagement ring. Love radiating off both of them.

Dawn sighed wistfully and tucked her head against Bucky’s neck. A date in Dijon sounded terribly romantic. A picnic in one of the vinyards. Watching the stars come out to the sound of nightingales. It was like something out of a poem.

“We’ll find something fun to do too.” Bucky whispered, kissing the top of her head. They could spend the night reading one of the many books she had brought. He would scrounge up some good bread and maybe some cheese. She would put her head on his chest and fall into a blissful sleep.

★

When Dawn had teasingly offered to vacate the room she and Peggy shared for the end of Steve and Peggy’s evening, Bucky had expected to take Dawn back to his much smaller room.

What he didn’t expect was to find himself with his back against the wall, with his Sunshine kissing him as though she needed him to breathe as soon as he got her there. He groaned against her mouth as she pressed her tongue between his lips to stroke her tongue over his. This was very different from the evening he’d had planned.

He slid his hands over her curves. The cotton of her pretty pink dress was soft under his hands. He liked her plans better. He would be more than happy to kiss her like this all night.

Dawn sighed and tipped her head back so he could kiss her throat. She needed him. His hands. His mouth. All of him. “Bucky.”

“I love it when you say my name.” Bucky growled, crushing his lips back to hers. She was so sweet, melting in his arms. Her hands roaming over his chest. She already had half his buttons undone. She was definitely going to drive him crazy tonight.

Her hand slid down to cup him and he jerked against her, dragging his mouth away from hers. “Wait -- “

She froze, suddenly unsure. “What is it?”

“You -- You don’t have to do that.” He wasn’t sure he could stop himself if she did. He wasn’t even sure if he would start breathing again if she moved her hand. “If you’re not ready… I can wait.”

“Well maybe I can’t.”

He blinked, shook his head, sure that he had misheard her. “What?”

His utter shock would have been amusing if she wasn’t so nervous. She rubbed her palm curiously over that firmness filling her hand. It was warm, even through his pants. “I want to do this for you.”

“Sunshine, are you sure?“ Bucky ran his thumb over her jaw. He wanted her, so much it was physically uncomfortable, but he wouldn’t push her. Wouldn’t even ask in case she felt pressured. All the will power and good intent in the world couldn’t stop his breath from deepening and growing ragged even at her light touch.

Dawn nodded, pressing a kiss into the palm of his hand. “I’m sure. Last time -- it was amazing. I want tonight to be about you.” She then used her free hand to nudge him back towards the bed until the back of his knees met the mattress. Another light push dropped him to the surface. 

She wanted her hands on him, wanted to explore that beautiful body until she’d memorized every inch. She wanted to know what made him gasp and sigh, wanted to know what would make him see stars as he had done with her that night. 

This time there would be no interruptions. No risk of discovery. No one to see her straddle his lap and kiss him. No one who might find him running his hands up her thighs to trace the straps of her garters. 

“You’ll have to tell me… if I do something wrong,” she murmured, trailing kisses down his throat. 

His breath caught as she tugged his shirt off his shoulders and brushed her lips over a spot just above his collar. “You’re -- ah -- doin’ just fine, doll.”

She could already feel him, hard and hot beneath her, feel the involuntary buck of his hips as she scraped her teeth over the muscle of his shoulder. 

His hands slid up over her hips and up her body to finish undoing the little pearl buttons of her dress. She slid her arms free of the sleeves, allowing the bodice to pool at her waist. Then she flattened her hands against Bucky’s chest and gave a slight push until he lay flat on the mattress beneath her. 

He gazed up at her, blue eyes dark with want as she slid her hands over him, taking in that tumbled dark hair, the kiss-swollen mouth, the sheen of her blush pink satin slip against her skin. 

She leaned in to follow him and brushed her lips ever-so-lightly over his. “Tell me what you like,” Dawn murmured against his mouth. One hand trailed down over his chest, her thumb brushing over the peak of his nipple as she ground down against his hardness.

“Ah -- that -- “ He gasped, just managing to hold back a low groan.

“How about -- this?” She kissed down his chest to swirl her tongue around the nipple that she had just been touching. It had felt so good to have his mouth on her before, she wondered if it felt the same for him. By the way his hands fisted in her slip, she thought it might. Encouraged, she took the peak into her mouth, relishing the resulting moan. 

Bucky shut his eyes, praying for patience. His Sunshine was determined to destroy him by inches. Her nimble hands danced over him as she continued to tease him with her mouth. It was taking all of his control not to turn the tables on her, to roll her over and pin her beneath him, to use his mouth and hands until she screamed his name. But this was her show, he reminded himself. He would let her run it as she saw fit. 

Dawn hesitated as her fingers reached the button of his trousers, her own inexperience and a sudden burst of insecurity crashing down on her like a wave. “Is… this okay?”

Bucky raised his head to glance down at where she crouched between his knees. His pulse was thundering in his ears, and for a moment it was hard to think over his towering want. “Doll, I promise that anything you want to do is okay by me,” he assured her, pushing himself up onto his elbows. “But if you’re not ready -- “

She cut him off by flicking the buttons open one by one. Already she could see him straining against the cotton of his boxers. And when she leaned in to press her lips against the cloth, she could’t help but smile at the breathless curse that escaped him. She continued kissing along his length as she undid the buttons of his boxers, freeing him at last from their confines. 

This was certainly a first for her. As a nurse, Dawn had been exposed to naked men on a fairly regular basis. But Bucky was the first that she wanted to see. The first that she had wanted to touch. She couldn’t help staring as she pulled his pants the rest of the way off. Extra fabric getting in the way sounded like a compilation a novice like her didn’t need.

It was bigger than she had thought it would be. She reached out, biting her lip as she wrapped her fingers around him, stroking base to tip. 

Bucky shut his eyes tight, fisting his hands in the coverlet as those gentle hands explored him. He’d imagined this moment a hundred times, and now with her hands on him at last, it was a battle not to come apart at the seams.

“Ah -- _fuck_ \-- “ The expletive escaped unbidden, and he arched against the bed as she took him into the wet heat of her mouth. “Fuck -- Sunshine -- “ His hand released the blanket to bury itself in the soft, tumbled curls of her hair.

She swirled her tongue around him, leaning in to take him deeper and earning another breathless moan. Every thought was focused on him, the reactions of his body, the feel of him under her hands, each moan and gasp that signalled something he had liked. The feel of his hand in her hair as he guided her. 

He could feel himself getting close. He bit his lip, hand fisting in Dawn’s hair as he tried to hold on just a little longer. “ Doll -- I’m -- _fuck_ \-- you gotta -- “

But she didn’t pull back. Instead, she covered his hand with her own and continued to pleasure him with her mouth until he saw stars. 

He felt more than saw her crawl up onto the bed next to him, his hand still clutched in hers. He brushed his thumb affectionately over her hand.

She smiled down at him, running the fingers of her free hand through his hair, her face flushed, expression suddenly shy. “Was that… okay?”

Bucky cupped her face reverentially. _Okay?_ She thought that was only okay? “You are going to be the death of me.”

Dawn blushed and cuddled into his arms, her slip riding up and revealing the eyelet lace around the hem of her underwear. There was something about that lace that struck Dawn as scandalous. Which was insane. She still had the taste of him in her mouth. How could lace be more risque?

Bucky traced the scalloped edge of the lace where it skimmed her leg. That was very pretty. Pretty and incredibly tempting. The creamy lace looked good there, how much better would it look on the floor? The narrow strip of skin between the hem of her underwear and the top of her stockings was amazingly soft. The only problem Bucky had with it was there just wasn’t enough of it.

Dawn gasped as his fingers slid up the outside of her hip under the loose fabric.

Now, how was he supposed to ignore a sound like that? Bucky rolled her onto her back, pinning her to the bed with a hand on either side of her head. He dipped his head, pressing a line of something halfway between a kiss and a bite down the length of her neck. He nudged her legs apart with a knee, at the same time he trailed kisses down her arm. She was soft and sweet all over. 

Sitting back on his heels, he ran his hands up the full length of her beautiful legs. Oh, the things he wanted to do to her. The things he would do once he got a ring on her perfect finger. The things he was going to do to her tonight, because he had been right and had lost all self-control when she got her hands on him.

“Bucky, wait.” Dawn set her hand on his arm. As good as his touch and his kisses felt, this wasn’t the plan.

“What’s wrong, doll?” Bucky gently traced the curve of her calf. She didn’t sound scared, or even particularly nervous, more confused. He wasn’t sure what there was to be confused by, his intentions felt reasonably obvious.

“This was supposed to be about you.” Dawn tugged on his wrist. He didn’t have to do anything. She’d done it because she wanted to.

“This is about me.” Bucky kissed the inside of her knee. She really had no idea what she did to him. “I am a bad bad man, and I have not been able to stop thinking about doing this for longer than I would like to admit.”

He pushed her slip over her head, then reached around behind her to unclasp her bra. Dawn arched her back to make it easier for him. He hooked his finger into the waist of her underwear and drew them down past her knees. Her garters and stockings followed, all ending in a pile beside the bed.

A deep blush heated Dawn’s cheeks, creeping down her neck and over her chest. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been completely naked in front of another person, esspecally not a man. Even in the camp, the women’s showers had private stalls. You might catch an occasional flash of someone’s skin as they dressed or undressed, but nothing like this. Nothing like Bucky kneeling between her legs and letting his eyes roam over her.

Bucky drooled at the sight of his girl laid out before him. The reality of her was better than any fantasy. Sweet, and innocent, and desperate for him all at once. “Ahh, Sunshine.” He reached out and rubbed a thumb over one of her amazingly perky nipples, unable to stop himself from smirking as she shivered with pleasure. “You really think I could resist a chance to get my mouth on you?”

Goosebumps prickled Dawn’s skin as he slowly pressed one kiss after another into the inside of her thighs, slowly and torturously working his way towards where she needed him. “Bucky.” She moaned, twisting her hand into his hair in imitation of what he had done earlier.

He smiled into her skin. Saying his name and playing with his hair. Was it his birthday, or was she just trying to drive him crazy? It didn’t take him long to make her fill the room with his name. Gasped, and moaned, and eventually screamed. 

She shivered with pleasure. She had though last time was the pinnacle of pleasure. Bucky’s fingers were nothing compared to his mouth. She was putty in his hands and he hadn’t even taken her properly yet. What would that be like? Bucky over top of her, their bodies moving together. Like dancing, only _more_. She wanted that. Not tonight. She wasn’t entirely sure she could move at all right now, let alone that much. But she wanted it with Bucky, and no one else.

He trailed more kisses up her body as he climbed back into the bed next to her. Scooping her in with one arm, he freed the blankets from under her. They weren’t going to sleep cold tonight if he had anything to say about it. They also wouldn’t be putting clothes back on. He had very strong opinions about Dawn putting her dress back on one second before she had to.

Blankets wrapped warm around them, he pulled her in tight to his side, marveling once again at how well she fit against him. Like two puzzle pieces. He closed his eyes and let himself relax into the pillow. Tonight, he was going to sleep very well.”

“Bucky?” Dawn whispered his name into the dark room, not sure if he was awake or asleep.

“Yeah, Sunshine?” Bucky kept his eyes closed, but his mouth turned up in a smile. Whispering together in the dark, it was such a pure moment. He was so incredibly in love with this woman.

Dawn licked her lips and brushed her fingers over his chest nervously. “Is this what it’s going to be like? The rest of our lives?”

“I’m a young man with strong appetites, doll” Bucky laughed and rolled her on top of him. Hands curling around her hips firmly. “It’s going to be even better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Our Dawn is an excellent seamstress.


	10. July 25 1945

** July 25 1945 **

Bucky took a deep breath. Clutching the sides of the dresser and staring at himself in the mirror. Why was he so nervous? There was no reason he should be this nervous.

Steve burst into the room behind him. There was a manic glint in his eye and his hair was sticking up on one side. "Your tie's not tied. Why isn't your tie tied? We have to leave for the church in five minutes. You should be dressed."

"Whoa. Deep breath." Bucky said pushing Steve down onto the edge of the bed so he could fix his hair. That was why he was nervous. His best friend was a disaster. "Where have you been? You look like something the cat dragged in."

Steve looked down at his shoes sheepishly. "I went to see the girls."

Bucky laughed out loud. "Yeah? And how did that go?"

"Ginny threw a shoe at me." Steve mumbled, suddenly very interested in his feet.

That made Bucky laugh again. He grabbed his tie off the dresser, sky blue _because it matches your eyes_. "Come on big man. We have somewhere to be."

★

The small stone church looked like something out of a picture book. Ivy climbed one wall. Flowers spilled over the low wall fencing in the church yard. It was a perfect day. The sky was bright shining blue, with just enough of a breeze to stop the heat from being overwhelming. Steve bumped his shoulder against Bucky’s, excitement radiating off him in waves.

Ginny was waiting on the steps, tapping a foot impatiently. "You two are very nearly late."

Bucky grinned, all this time and she still didn't really like him. "You thought we weren't coming? We'd fight through the entire German army before we missed this."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Just get up there. You know how she feels about starting late." 

Bucky plucked a flower and tucked it behind Ginny's ear. "Someday, you are going to wake up and realize you like me."

He and Steve stopped next to each in the aisle of the church. Candles already flicked on the altar, garlands of flowers lined the pews. The Howling Commandos grinned from the front pews on the groom's side. Bucky patted Steve on the shoulder. "You with me?"

"Till the end of the line." Steve sounded shaky but excited. "You've got the rings?"

Bucky patted his breast pocket. "Right here."

Steve beamed and clapped Bucky on the back. "Let's get me married."

Peggy was radiant in a white dress with long sleeves and a heart shaped neckline. All of Dawn’s sewing on the train had paid off, Steve’s parachute had been masterfully reworked into the perfect wedding dress for a woman as elegant and practical as Peggy. She clutched her father's arm, a bouquet of roses and baby's breath in her other hand. 

Bucky peeked at Steve. He'd never seen his friend look so happy. 

As the couple said their vows, Bucky's eyes were fixed on Dawn. He couldn't wait for their turn.

★

The walk from the church to the pub hosting the wedding breakfast took them down a pretty yew-lined path. Bucky twirled Dawn in a tight circle, making her stumble happily into his side.

Ahead of them Steve kept almost walking into things because he wasn’t willing to take his eyes off Peggy. Peggy rescued him every time, guiding him around trees and benches, laughing the entire time.

"They're so in love." Dawn sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. Steve and Peggy were perfect for each other.

"They are." Bucky grinned, tightening the arm around her waist. "And so am I." He kissed the side of her head, taking a long moment to enjoy holding her in this new, more peaceful world. "How long do you have in New York when we get back?"

"A week. Just like I told you the last four times you asked." Blue eyes watched him suspiciously. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were nervous, Sergeant Barnes."

He was. He was scared out of his mind that his plan wouldn't go the way he thought it would. "Just excited to show you my home, doll."


	11. August 12, 1945

** August 12, 1945 **

The last rays of the sun gilded everything a warm gold. Light glinting off the glass of the city, and sparkling on the tips of the rippling waves. Boats glided across the water, shuttling back and forth across the river or trundling heavily towards the docks. Dawn sighed at the beauty of it. It was one of the most stunning things she had ever seen.

This entire trip had been beautiful. Everything from getting off the boat, to riding the subway, to the bustle of the city within a city that was Brooklyn, had been an adventure.

Mrs. Barnes had welcomed her with incredible warmth, folding her into the family like she had been there all along. Steve being tall had been more of a scandal than Bucky bringing her home. 

At the insistence of Bucky’s mother, they were staying with Bucky’s family. All of them, even Steve and Peggy while they looked for an apartment. They had Bucky’s old bedroom, much to Peggy’s amusement, while Bucky slept on the couch in the living room. Dawn was sharing a room with Bucky’s little sister Rebecca, who was lovely. 

Having Bucky down the hall was torture though. She lay awake wondering if there was some way she could creep down the hall and curl up with him.

During the day Bucky showed Dawn his world. Sometimes with Steve and Peggy, sometimes just the two of them. There had been baseball at Dodger Stadium, and an embarrassing amount of necking on the Ferris wheel at Coney Island. Dancing at Bucky’s favourite club, and an early morning visit to the fish market for Friday dinner. Lunch in a tea room, and a long afternoon picking through a second hand bookstore, where Dawn had been forced to restrain herself with a mental reminder of how much space she had in her suitcase.

They had gone into the city and spent an entire day exploring. Dawn was absolutely in love with the Museum of Natural History. There hadn’t been time to visit the New York Public Library, but Bucky had promised they would find time. The smile that had accompanied the promise had been enough to make Dawn’s knees weak.

Bucky had to spend one day with Steve and Peggy doing something about their new jobs with the SSR. He’d apologised profusely and came back for ‘one more’ goodbye kiss enough times that Steve eventually dragged him out by the ear, with a laughing Peggy grabbing the door for them and a beet red Dawn unable to stop blushing.

Rebbeca had taken Dawn shopping, they visited the fabric stores on the lower west side of the city. Dawn suspected Bucky’s hand in the choice of activity, not that she was complaining. She had been ecstatic to find a gorgeous dusty green suiting that practically begged her to make a fall walking suit out of it. A pink and green floral cotton joined the suiting in her purchase, it just made for too perfect an outfit. There was crisp white shirting and brown wool herringbone to help replace Bucky’s civilian wardrobe. She wasn’t sure how she would convert it into shirts and pants for him without her sewing machine. She bought it anyway. She wanted to take care of Bucky and this was one way she could, even if she had to wait until she was back in Canada and mail the clothes back to him. Becca had added a sizeable piece of lace too. It felt frivolous to Dawn, but Becca insisted that you never knew when you were going to need something pretty.

And tonight. Dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant. Sharing an ice-cream cone as they walked around the park. The sun setting behind the Empire City. She couldn’t imagine a more romantic evening with the man she loved. Dawn squeezed the warm hand holding hers. “You were right. This is beautiful.”

“Yeah. You are.” Bucky hoped she couldn’t tell how fast his heart was beating. Small as it was, the box in his pocket felt like it weighed a ton.

He cleared his throat. There was no reason he should be nervous. His girl loved him enough to follow him all over the world. She would say yes. He closed his hand around the velvet box. It was a smaller ring than the one Steve had bought. Just one bright white sparkling diamond, set in a gold band with flowers and leaves engraved around the band. It had reminded him of fairy tales in the shop. He hoped she would see it too.

“Dawn.” Bucky sank to one knee. “From the moment I met you, I knew you were special. These last couple years... Well, they have been some of the worst in my life… But you were the light that kept me going through all of it. I love you, so much. Will you marry me?”

“Bucky.” Dawn pressed her hands to her mouth. He was-- She was-- They were--

“Don’t leave me hanging here, Sunshine.” Bucky’s face was starting to ache from how hard he was smiling.

“Yes! Yes, of course, yes.” Dawn threw herself at him, wrapping her arms tight around his neck. She couldn’t stop laughing, even as happy tears ran down her cheeks. They were going to get married.

Dawn let Bucky slide the ring onto her finger. It fit beautifully there.

★

They walked slowly and meanderingly back towards the Barnes apartment. Dawn looked down at their clasped hands every few feet, the diamond on her ring catching the streetlights and glittering in the growing dark. The diamond on her engagement ring. Her engagement ring from Bucky. Her heart sang at the idea. They were going to get married, and spend the rest of their lives together.

Dawn shivered as a damp breeze tickled her neck. She might be happier than she ever remembered being, but clouds were starting to block out the last of the sunset, and if the nip in the air was any indication, it was going to rain. Confirming her suspicions, a few drops of water spattered the pavement. “We should hurry back, we’ll get drenched otherwise.”

Bucky lifted her hand to his lips, kissing it just next to her brand new ring. She was his, now and forever, it was all but official. “There’s one more thing I want to show you.”

They ended up having to sprint for a block with Bucky’s jacket held over their heads as the sky opened up. Bucky pulled her into the entrance of a limestone apartment building half way down the block.

Dawn looked around the small lobby in awe. It was so stylish and metropolitan. Green marble and shiny brass everywhere, a grill covering a small elevator in the middle of the curling staircase. “Who lives here?”

“You’ll see.” Bucky kissed her cheek and tugged her towards the stares.

Bucky let her into the third floor apartment with a flourish. It wasn’t much to look at right now, but he knew that between the two of them it would be a happy home. The SSR was keeping Steve and all the Commandos on, their trip into the city had confirmed that. The numbers on the contract he had signed had reassured him that he wasn’t making a mistake asking Dawn to take a chance on him. It was the kind of job that would more than pay for him to have a family, at least a small one. Love paying the bills was a romantic idea in songs, but he never wanted his girl to worry about the roof over her head, or the heads of their children. He was going to take care of his Sunshine.

“Oh, Bucky.” Dawn gasped as she turned to try and take in the whole space. Big windows, high ceilings, pretty parquet floors, a modern kitchen with a gas stove, and she could just make out a little park on the corner. It was the chicest apartment she had ever seen. There was no furniture, and Bucky had a key. It was theirs.

Bucky shifted nervously from foot to foot. Her family had a house and yard in Calgary, she told him all about getting in trouble for climbing the apple tree as a child. What if she wasn’t impressed by the home he had found them? “I know. It’s a little small, only the two bedrooms, and it needs paint, and--”

Dawn threw herself into his arms again, kissing him to make him stop talking. “I love it.”

Bucky beamed, picking her up and spinning her around. She loved it. She was going to marry him, and they were going to live here. They would have children and make memories and be happy. “Peggy and Steve are looking at one in the next building. So, we’ll have neighbours you know. There is this deli a couple of blocks down, they make the best corn beef sandwiches.”

Dawn kept poking around as she listened to him gush. Every detail was perfect. They could put a big bookshelf between the windows in the living room, and a little table in the dining nook. They had a _dining nook_ , only glamorous people had dining nooks. The kitchen was a chef's dream. The little bedroom would make a perfect sewing room, and maybe a nursery when the time came.

She froze in the door to the largest bedroom. “Bucky?”

“Yeah, Sunshine?” Bucky slipped his arms around her from behind. If there was a happier man in the world today, he wanted to meet him and compare notes. 

Dawn turned around in his hold setting her hands softly on his chest.“Why are there blankets and candles in here?”

“Oh.” Bucky cleared his throat and looked down at his shoes awkwardly. “I--uh--I may have made some presumptions about how you would want to celebrate, and-- um-- I didn’t really want to take you back to my ma’s tonight.”

Dawn grabbed him by the tie and towed him into the bedroom. Rain was pouring down outside, and Dawn was very happy. _You’ll never know dear how much I love you_.


	12. July 19, 2011

**July 19, 2011**

Dawn’s hands shook as she tried to fasten her earrings. Her fingers had been so graceful when she had been young. Now buttons were an effort on a normal day, let alone dressing for a formal evening. At least her sunburst earrings still sparkled. 

It didn’t help that the DC hotel room was cold. It was early July outside, but inside it felt like October. She wasn’t sure when fancy had started being associated with excessive air conditioning, but it was a decision she would have argued against. Bucky had spent an hour last night trying to turn it down before he had given up. It wasn’t the first cold night they had spent wrapped around each other. Thankfully her Bucky had always radiated heat like a furnace.

“Have I told you how beautiful you are today?” Bucky carefully tucked a soft grey curl behind his wife’s ear so he could kiss her shoulder. He made an effort to tell her every day. Because everyday she seemed to grow more beautiful. He knew she didn’t believe him when he said it. She thought age had stolen her beauty. She was wrong. Age had made her elegant, and growing old with her was everything he had wanted from his life.

“Shoo, you flirt. I’m trying to get dressed for your party.” Dawn swatted his hand playfully. She opened the second velvet box on the dresser. The necklace inside matched her earrings. A large round citrine, cut with dozens of facets to catch the light, and ringed with shining golden rays, more small citrines decorated the chain that extended from the longest rays. It had been a gift from Bucky to celebrate their fifth anniversary, which also happened to coincide with the birth of their second child. 

Bucky took the necklace from her and fastened the small clasp deftly. Dawn had told him off for spending too much money on her when he had bought it. 60 years of making her smile later, it felt like a good investment. “’s Steve’s party. I'm just introducing him."

Dawn turned around so she could slip her arms around his neck. She might be getting old, but her husband was still as handsome as ever. His back was straight, his arms strong, and hands steady. If anything age had only made him look distinguished. Fresh from the shower like he was now, his hair looked almost as dark as it had when she had first fallen for him. His aftershave smelled the same as it had the day they had gotten married. She melted into him, unable to maintain even faux irritation for any length of time. Not when the few lines that had gathered on his face were all smile lines, and his smile was still the roguish grin she had fallen in love with. “Your face is on the wall, it’s your party.”

★

Guests spilled out of the Smithsonian's galleries. A huge banner hung down the facade, Steve’s face and the words _Captain America: Remembering our Past to Prepare for our Future_ emblazoned three stories tall. Behind him in the picture, you could see the rest of the Howling Commandos. Bucky’s face was largest, just over his left shoulder. 

Both the Barnes and Rogers clans were out in force tonight. James Jr, Ginevra, Steven and their respective partners, were chatting with Sarah and Michael, a mixed flock of grandchildren and great-grandchildren milling around them. There were other representatives of the Howling Commandos in attendance too, although not many of the original members were left. Morita’s grandson was leaning against the bar. Dawn had seen Ginny and her daughter Aurora on the way in, although they seemed to have gotten waylaid somewhere. Even Howard’s son Tony was here, and from the ruckus going on around him, still keeping up the Stark tradition of always being the center of attention.

Dawn smoothed the peach pink taffeta of her dress over her lap, as she sunk into a chair next to Peggy. All the excitement was wearing her out. They had already sat through a lovely, but lengthy, dinner with the Secretary of the Institute. She hoped it wouldn’t have to wait too long for Steve’s speech and the ribbon cutting proper. Cocktail hour had stopped being fun around the time she’d stopped having to find a sitter when they left the kids for the night.

Bucky turned and waved over his eldest son. “JJ, see if the bar can find some hot water with lemon for your mother.”

Dawn patted his hand affectionately. That was the love of her life, always worrying about her. “I’m fine, dear. Just let me sit and catch up with Peggy for a minute.”

Her son ignored her protests. Striding off on his mission with the determined stride of a Barnes. 

Peggy smiled and took Dawn’s free hand. “Can you believe it? All this for my Steven.”

Dawn squeezed Peggy’s hand. It sounded like her dear friend was having a good day. That was a good, Steve didn’t need anything extra on his plate tonight. “He more than earned it.”

JJ came back with a delicate mug of hot water, a bright slice of lemon perched on the rim. Mikey trailing in his wake, carrying a mug of his own. Dawn was struck, the same way she always was, by how much like their fathers they looked. Slimmer, but then they had never had to fight for their future. Thanks to those same fathers, they had grown up surrounded by peace and love.

Peggy’s eyes dimmed a little as she looked around the room. “Where is Steve?”

Michael handed Peggy the mug and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll find Dad for you Mom. Don’t worry.”

It didn’t take Mikey very long to find his father and extract him from whatever conversation he was having. Steve had always been willing to drop everything for his family. 

Tony bounced around Steve like an excitable puppy. His entourage abandoned in favour of pestering his godfather with some new idea or other. “-- Lend _me_ the shield. I’ll figure out how to synthesise vibranium, _then_ you can pass it on to Wilson.”

“I'm not letting you experiment on the shield, Tony. Sam is the hero our country needs right now. He gets it.” Steve answered. He had put a lot of thought into who the best choice to inherit his legacy was. Steve was firmly of the opinion that being Captain America meant doing the right thing even when it was unpopular. Especially when it was unpopular. A philosophy that had made life more exciting than it needed to be in the 70s, and one that he had insisted his successor share. He'd almost given up on finding someone else who could live up to that before he met Sam Wilson. Sam was perfect. Intelligent, determined, and principled in a rare way.

“Sit down, Tony.” Dawn sighed with long suffering affection. She was sure they’d had the same argument at Easter dinner. But then, no one had ever said Antony was lacking in enthusiasm. Or intelligence. Just common sense and moderation. He really was his father’s son. “And when are you going to pull your head out of the mud and ask the pretty red-head to marry you?”

Tony blushed, but pulled up a seat next to Peggy. “Pepper is my assistant.”

“Of course she is.” Bucky snorted and stole Dawn’s lemon. He said that like it meant anything. She might be his assistant, but she had also been in Tony’s life for eight years now, could handle him when he was manic, and Tony obviously thought she could do no wrong. “I know I always looked at my assistants that way.”

“I’ll never get married, no one could ever hold a candle to my beloved Director Carter.” Tony kissed Peggy’s hand flamboyantly.

Peggy patted his cheek affectionately. It was a familiar interaction, which seemed to center her. “You’re too young for me, Tony.” 

"You keep saying that, but I get older every day." Tony grinned, and relaxed into his seat.

Steve sighed and leaned over the back of his wife's chair. "I'm never going to be free of the Stark men flirting with you, am I."

Peggy tipped her face up so he could kiss her. Which he did, loving and gentle, the same way he had kissed her for years. “Would you ever want to be?”

“No,” Steve stole a chair from another table and scooted it in close to Peggy’s. He loved his wife, even if she wasn’t always the sharply brilliant woman he had married. “I suppose I wouldn’t.”

For all his playboy ways, Tony was a much softer man than his father. It was a matter of minutes before he’d switched gears from social butterfly, to member of an extended family. He had Steve and Peggy’s newest great grandchild, Sarah’s daughter had had a daughter less than a year ago, in his lap, and was letting the baby play with his sunglasses while he chatted with her mother about how she was doing finding funding for the early education program she ran.

Steve had a sneaking suspicion that the estimable Pepper would be in touch about a grant by the end of the week. Tony really was a good kid, even if they didn’t always agree. Howard would have been proud. 

Bucky caught sight of one of the museum employees trying to catch Steve’s attention. It was the same nervous hovering Bucky had gotten used to recognising during their post war tour. He smacked Steve’s hip. “‘S time.”

“Wait here, Pegs.” Steve kissed her head sweetly. Some days he resented being Captain America, then he remembered that it had brought him Peggy. He could handle a little pageantry in exchange for a life with her. “I’ll be right back.”

It was a stirring passionate speech, Steve’s speeches almost always were. Bucky had heard enough of them to know all the beats. Loves his country. Blah blah blah. Nobel if complicated legacy. Blah blah blah. Remember the sacrifices made to get to where they were. Blah blah blah. Be conscious of our failings. Blah blah blah. Fights not over. Blah blah blah. Do better to leave a future worthy of their children. Steve always tried to leave the crowd on a high note. Give them something hopeful to work towards. Achievable goal on the path to the unattainable. That was what he called them. Bucky called them his “don’t be shitty people” to-do list.

As always, the crowd went crazy. Bucky wondered how long it would take for the video to go viral this time. He slapped Steve on the back and ushered him back towards their families. There was a time when he would have suggested they all go out for a celebratory drink and take the girl dancing. That had been years ago. Tonight he was feeling about ready to call it a night, tell the kids to meet them for breakfast at ten, and head to bed.

Steve tucked Peggy protectively under his arm as soon as he was close enough. She was starting to take on that slightly glazed look he associated with her running out of lucid time. The sooner he got her safely home, or at least to Sarah’s house, the better.

Bucky slipped his hand into Dawn’s. It had been a good night. But then, he was always a sucker for an excuse to get his girl dressed up. Even more so when that excuse also got his family all in one room. Twice a year wasn’t nearly often enough in his opinion. Weekly dinners. That would be the thing. All they had to do was get Ginevra and her wife to move back to New York, and remind Steven that there is more to life than work.

“Take me back to the hotel, Love.” Dawn leaned her head on Bucky’s arm, running her thumb over his wedding ring. She liked knowing that it was there and that he was hers. “I am more than ready to go to bed.”

Bucky lifted her hand to his lips with a smile. “I will never get tired of hearing you say that.”

“Eww. Grandpa,” JJ’s youngest grandchild, a precocious 8, made a face at Bucky and Dawn as he swung off his father’s hand. “Don’t be gross.”

Bucky fluffed his hair affectionately. “Listen here kiddo. Someday you are going to meet someone, and you’re going to be ecstatic every time they tell you they want to spend the night with you.”

Dawn kissed Bucky’s shoulder. He wasn’t wrong. “Stop corrupting the children.”

Bucky laughed and twirled her, slower than he would have when they were younger, but still fast enough to make her giggle. “Come on, Sunshine. Let’s get you to bed.”

★

Bucky pulled Dawn closer, so her head lay over his heart, the place she had rested for countless nights during their years together. The air conditioner was still broken, leaving them curled together under an unseasonable pile of blankets. There was a strange symmetry between their room being cold tonight and that first night they had spent together in France. It had been freezing then too. Bucky’s mind was full of memories from those early days.

Dawn nuzzled Bucky’s chest. It had been a good night, but she never slept well when they weren’t in their own bed. Even less so when there was a strange machine filling the room with mechanical whirring. “Sing for me?”

“Always.” Bucky whispered, kissing her hair. He’d mixed it up over the years, but after an evening surrounded by the artefacts of their youth, there was really only one song he could pick.

 _“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine  
You make me happy when skies are gray  
You'll never know dear, how much I love you  
Please don't take my sunshine away…_” Bucky trailed off as Dawn fell asleep. 

He kissed her head softly. All evening they had told people about what they all seemed to think was the most important part of their lives. They were wrong. It had been the scariest and arguably the most historically interesting, but the most important part had been what came after. All the birthdays, and anniversaries, the little league games, and school plays, all the little mundane day to day things that other people seemed to think were boring time fillers. Bucky knew better, all those things were why they had had to fight in the first place. “I love you, Sunshine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for joining us on this adventure. You’ve all been so wonderful with your kudos and comments. So wonderful in fact that you’ve inspired a spin-off!
> 
> That's right lovelies. Time travel is happening.
> 
> What We're saying is subscribe to the series and give as a couple weeks and there should be more.


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